A.    Z-    CONRAD 


PRIVATE    LIBRARY 


No- 


Case 


No Jk ^L 


A  A   COLLEGIUM    rr 
[BOSTON1ENSE 


E.J.  BREHAUT 
BOSTONIANA  COLLECTION 


A  *T> 


THE  TWO  HUNDRED  AND 
FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 
OF  THE  FOUNDING  OF 
THE    OLD    SOUTH    CHURCH 

{Third  Church,  1669]  IN  BOSTON 


Ct)e  S®intettx& 

THOMAS  THACHER  1670 

SAMUEL  WILLARD  1678 

ERENEZER  PEMRERTON  1700 

JOSEPH  SEWALL  i7i3 

THOMAS  PRINCE  1718 

ALEXANDER  CUMMING  1761 

SAMUEL  RLAIR  1766 
JOHN  RACON  ) 

JOHN  HUNT    )  I771 

JOSEPH  ECKLEY  1779 

JOSHUA  HUNTINGTON  1808 

RENJ.  R.  WISNER  1821 

SAMUEL  H.  STEARNS  i834 

GEORGE  W.  RLAGDEN  i836 

JACOR  M.  MANNING  i857 

GEORGE  A.  GORDON  1884 


THE  TWO  HUNDRED  AND 
FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 

OF     THE      FOUNDING      OF 
THE   OLD    SOUTH    CHURCH 

[Third  Church,   1669]    IN    BOSTON 


J 


IMPRINTED  FOR  THE  OLD  SOUTH  SOCIETY 
BY  THE  PLIMPTON  PRESS 


WITH  THE  COMPLIMENTS  OF  THE 
MINISTERS  AND  OFFICERS  OF  THE 
OLD     SOUTH     CHURCH,     BOSTON 


THE  SERVICES  in  recognition  of  the  two  hundred 
and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  Old 
South  Church  were  held  on  Friday  evening.  May  2, 
1919,  Sunday  morning  and  evening,  May  U,  and 
Sunday  morning  and  evening,  May  11.  A  part  of 
Dr.  Gordons  address  at  the  service  preparatory  to 
Communion  Friday  evening,  May  2,  is  included  in 
this  volume.  It  was  in  the  nature  of  an  intimate 
talk  with  the  members  of  the  church,  but  will  have 
equal  interest  for  the  many  past  members  who  are 
likely  to  see  this  permanent  record.  The  Memorial 
Communion  Service  was  celebrated  Sunday  morning, 
May  U,  preceding  which  Dr.  Gordon  preached,  his 
subject  being  "A  Cloud  of  Witnesses."  In  the  even- 
ing of  the  same  day  the  choir  of  the  church,  augmented 
by  a  chorus  of  twenty  voices,  under  the  direction  of  the 
organist,  Mr.  Wry,  rendered  Mendelssohn's  "  Hymn 
of  Praise."  The  Associate  Minister,  Mr.  Butler, 
gave  an  appropriate  address.  Sunday  morning, 
May  11,  Dr.  Gordon  delivered  a  historical  discourse 
covering  the  history  of  the  church  to  the  time  of  his 
installation.  He  has  extended  this  discourse  for 
purposes  of  publication  so  as  to  present  in  brief  form 
and  yet  adequately  the  salient  points  in  the  history 

of  the  church.     At  the  request  of  the  Church  Com- 

[v] 


[vi] 

mittee  the  Reverend  Albert  E.  Dunning,  D.D.  has  pre- 
pared a  paper  upon  the  pastorate  of  Dr.  Gordon 
from  his  installation  to  the  present  time  which  follows 
the  historical  discourse  in  this  volume.  At  the  evening 
meeting,  May  11,  greetings  were  given  by  the  Governor 
of  the  State,  the  Mayor  of  the  City,  and  the  Reverend 
Dr.  Park,  minister  of  the  First  Church,  Boston.  The 
address  was  delivered  by  President  Richard  C. 
Maclaurin,  LL.D. 

Many  letters  were  received  by  Dr.  Gordon  and  by 
the  officials  of  the  church  from  churches  and  individ- 
uals, conveying  greeting  and  congratulations.  While 
none  of  these  are  included  in  this  volume,  although 
worthy  of  publication,  a  formal  acknowledgment  is 
here  made  with  a  heartfelt  expression  of  appreciation 
for  these  evidences  of  fraternal  fellowship,  most  cor- 
dially reciprocated  by  the  ministers  and  members  of 
the  Old  South  Church  and  Congregation. 

Committee  of  Publication 
of  the  Church  and  Society 


YEARS  AND  ASPIRATIONS 

LEAD  me,  Lord,  through  all  my  days, 
In  Thy  great  and  wondrous  ways, 
Lift  my  heart  to  grander  hours, 
Hold  me  with  Thy  heavenly  powers. 

Of  the  Past  may  I  still  keep 
Things  divine  both  high  and  deep, 
Morning  light  and  evening  glow 
That  have  ever  blessed  me  so. 

Memories  that  ever  shine; 
Friends  unseen  but  friends  still  mine; 
Service  sweet  in  high  reward; 
Spirits  blest  in  dear  regard. 

Tender  sympathies  and  tears, 
Precious  store  of  noble  years; 
Visions  wide  on  pathways  wild, 
Chastened  thought  again  a  child! 

Trust  in  Thee  that  surer  grows; 
Human  love  that  fears  no  foes; 
Faith  that  to  Thy  heart  belong, 
Worlds  now  lost  in  woe  and  wrong. 

Show  me,  Lord,  Thy  word  of  grace  — 
Christ,  Thy  glory  in  his  face; 
That  I  through  my  fleeting  hour, 
Serve  Thy  kingdom  in  Thy  power. 

George  A.  Gordon  (April,  1909) 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  Preparatory  Address i 

The  Communion  Sermon 9 

Mr.  Butler's  Address 17 

The  Historical  Discourse 25 

i.  the  founders 28 

n.    COLONIAL    LEADERS 38 

HI.    THE    CHURCH    IN    THE    REVOLUTION 5l 

IV.    THE    CHURCH    AND    THE    CIVIL    WAR 66 

V.    LATEST    HISTORY 79 

The  Ministry  of  George  A.  Gordon 85 

The  Governor's  Address 107 

The  Mayor's  Address 1 13 

Dr.  Park's  Address 119 

President  MaclaurlVs  Address 127 


THE  PREPARATORY  ADDRESS 


.T  the  Service  Preparatory  to  the  Communion  on 
Friday,  May  2,  Dr.  Gordon  took  as  his  text,  Hebrews 
13:8,  "Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day, 
and  forever." 


THE  PREPARATORY  ADDRESS 

I  HAVE  often  had  the  thought  occur  to  me  when 
in  Egypt,  going  up  the  Nile,  looking  at  all 
the  broken  glories  of  Egyptian  art,  would  the 
ancient  Egyptians  know  their  own  home  if  they  were 
to  return  to  it,  those  of  the  earlier  dynasties,  six, 
five,  four  thousand  years  ago?  Memphis  gone, 
buried  under  the  sand;  Denderah  in  ruins,  Abydos 
the  same;  the  Temple  of  Luxor  hardly  recogniz- 
able; the  mighty  Karnak  a  wreck;  the  hundred- 
gated  Thebes  utterly  vanished.  Then  the  culti- 
vation on  either  side  of  the  Nile,  the  immense 
productivity  which  those  people  never  knew. 
Would  they  not  ask,  "Is  this  our  own  ancient 
home?"  How  could  they  tell?  Everything  changed, 
monuments  broken,  smashed,  —  wreckage  every- 
where. What  is  there  to  guide  them  to  a  sense 
that,  after  all,  this  is  the  land  that  they  loved? 
To  be  sure,  there  is  the  silent,  mysterious  desert  on 
either  side;  but  then,  desert  is  desert  everywhere, 
and  this  may  not  be  their  desert.  One  thing, 
the  river,  is  the  same;  the  same  in  ebb  and  in 
flood;  the  same  in  fertilizing  power;  the  same  with 
its  even  flow;  the  same  in  the  music  of  a  thousand 

generations  in  its  onward  movement;  the  same  in 

3 


[4] 

the  white  light  of  the  morning,  in  the  blazing  heat 
of  noon,  and  in  the  weird,  yellow  light  of  the  even- 
ing when  everything  seems  to  fade  into  mystery. 
The  river  tells  them  that  this  is  the  old  land,  the 
veritable  land  where  they  lived,  toiled,  loved,  died. 

In  the  same  way  we  wonder  if  the  Puritans  of 
three,  four,  five,  six,  seven  generations  ago  were  to 
return  to  Boston,  would  they  know  their  ancient 
home?  Physically,  everything  is  changed.  Then 
this  was  a  struggling  village,  now  it  is  a  metro- 
politan city;  streets  then  were  lanes  in  which  cows 
wandered,  the  whole  region  where  we  live  was 
under  water;  modes  of  living,  of  communication, 
of  conducting  business,  all  changed,  the  whole 
method  of  our  life  revolutionized.  Would  they  not 
be  strangers  in  the  old  town  of  Boston? 

In  the  intellectual  sphere,  what  changes!  In- 
tellectually theirs  was  a  simple  life.  Think  how 
many  great  poets,  great  thinkers,  great  scientists 
have  arisen  since  their  day,  and  how  much  has  been 
done  by  them  to  change  our  world;  and  think  what 
science  itself  and  the  science  of  history  have  done 
in  the  letting  in  of  all  the  great  minds  of  all  peoples, 
so  that  the  educated  man  to-day  is  a  product  of 
the  higher  minds  of  the  whole  race.  Would  not 
this  place  seem  strange  to  them  intellectually? 
Could  they  find  their  way  in  it? 

Religiously,  what  changes  they  would  see!  Would 
they  know  the  Old  South  Church?  There  is  that 
piano  —  would  they  like  that?     And  the  singing 


[5] 
led  by  young  women  —  would  they  not  think  that 
an  innovation  not  to  be  tolerated?  The  great 
organ  of  the  church  —  would  they  not  look  upon  it 
as  an  instrumentality  of  the  devil?  And  those  fine 
pews  with  their  cushions  —  would  they  not  think 
them  parlor  seats  in  a  train  de  luxe  moving  toward 
the  kingdom  of  heaven?  And  no  sexton  with  his 
stick  to  prod  sleepy  people  and  keep  them  awake 
during  the  sermon!  Then  the  shortness  of  the  ser- 
mons,—  not  an  hour  and  a  half  like  those  of  the 
olden  time!  Might  they  not  well  ask,  "Is  this 
Boston?  Is  this  the  Third  Church  of  Boston?  Are 
we  in  the  same  world  in  which  we  died?" 

There  is  one  thing  that  would  give  them  a  sense 
of  home  —  "Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday, 
and  to-day,  and  forever."  When  we  say  that  the 
supreme  loveliness  of  his  person  is  the  same,  the 
glory  of  his  teaching  about  God  and  about  man  is 
the  same,  the  depth  and  the  splendor  of  his  friend- 
ship for  human  souls  are  the  same,  his  sacrificial 
life  and  death  are  the  same,  and  his  confidence 
in  the  things  of  the  Eternal  World  is  the  same,  those 
old  Puritans  in  this  strange  town  of  Boston,  in  this 
strange  intellectual  and  religious  world,  would  say, 
"After  all,  we  are  at  home";  and  glistening  eye 
would  answer  glistening  eye  on  the  part  of  those 
noble  men  and  heroic  women;  iUuminated  face 
would  answer  illuminated  face.  They  would  feel 
that  after  all  and  amid  all  changes  and  revolutions, 
physical,  intellectual,  and  religious,  they  were  at 


[6] 
home  with  us  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
He  is  the  River  of  Life  running  through  history. 
We  interpret  the  Absolute  Spirit  not  by  sub-human 
forms,  but  by  the  power  of  humanity,  and  by 
humanity  at  its  best,  by  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  Supreme 
Man.  They  and  we  walk  together  in  Him,  wor- 
ship the  same  God  and  Father  of  the  world.  There 
is  the  ground  of  unity.  .  .  . 

I  have  tried  to  find  in  the  history  the  date  of  the 
first  Friday  evening  meeting.  Meetings  were  held 
usually  on  Thursday,  and  occasionally  on  Tuesday; 
but  there  came  a  time,  April  12,  1741,  not  far 
from  two  hundred  years  ago,  when  a  vote  was  taken 
to  have  an  additional  lecture  on  Friday  evening, 
so  long  as  the  desire  of  the  people  shall  be  for  that 
lecture.  We  are  holding  to-night  a  service,  there- 
fore, that  has  a  continuous  history  in  the  Old  South 
Church  of  one  hundred  and  seventy-eight  years. 
I  do  not  think  that  all  of  our  membership  of  a 
thousand  know  that  there  is  a  meeting  here  to- 
night, so  multifarious  are  the  cares  of  modern  good 
people;  but  I  am  sure  you  will  regard  it  as  a  part 
of  your  duty  during  next  year's  service  to  call 
attention  to  this  Friday  evening  meeting  and  to  ask 
the  members  if  they  still  desire  it,  —  if  they  have 
that  desire  out  of  which  the  meeting  arose  one 
hundred  and  seventy-eight  years  ago.  Do  the 
people  still  have  the  same  faith,  the  same  love,  the 
same  objects  to  live  for,  the  same  sense  of  sin  and 
temptation,  the  same  sense  of  the  tragic  world,  and 


[7] 
do  they  still  want  the  pastors,  —  there  were  two 
ministers,  and  they  were  to  give  the  lectures,  — 
as  the  vote  says,  to  give  them  the  Friday  evening 
lecture? 

Now  this  is  a  prelude,  giving  you  in  the  beginning 
of  our  celebration  just  a  glimpse  of  the  old-time 
stress  and  strain,  labor  and  sorrow,  high  ideals  and 
bitter  failures,  undiscouraged  wills;  a  glimpse  of 
this  company  of  brave  men  and  women  ever  press- 
ing on  to  the  greater  future,  and  keeping  the  church 
alive  for  the  generations  to  come.  They  loved  the 
Lord  and  they  loved  the  church;  and  I  should  like 
to  be  sure  that  our  people  not  only  love  the  Lord, 
but  love  the  church.  They  love  what  they  get  in 
the  church;  a  more  grateful  people  no  ministers 
ever  had,  or  a  more  friendly;  but  that  is  not  the 
point.  The  Church  never  would  have  lived  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  if  the  men  and  women  of 
Boston  in  successive  generations  had  not  loved  it. 
Teach  your  children  to  love  it;  love  it  yourselves; 
be  not  satisfied  with  simply  being  grateful  for  what 
you  get;  put  your  life  into  it,  and  make  it  a  monu- 
ment of  the  soul  of  your  family,  and  your  individual 
soul,  as  it  is  the  silent  and  grand  monument  of  all 
these  generations  of  noble  men  and  women. 

The  greatest  splendor  in  the  heavens  is  the  star 
Sirius.  One  cannot  look  upon  it  without  awe;  such 
an  unimaginable  distance,  and  yet  unapproached 
in  its  brilliancy,  even  to  the  naked  eye.  It  is  seen 
through  the  Syrian  atmosphere,  through  the  various 


[8] 
and  multifarious  European   atmospheres;    all   the 
continents  look  at  it  through  different  atmospheres; 
yet  all  the  while  it  is  the  same  blue,  transcendent, 
unapproachable  fire.     So  our  Lord  Jesus  is  seen 
through  all  the  varying  atmospheres  of  the  world, 
intellectual,  social,  religious,  and  in  all  the  genera- 
tions of  time,  but  is  always  the  same  splendor,  the 
same  incomparable  glory;  and  because  He 
is  there,  all  those  who  love  Him 
are  one  forevermore. 


THE  COMMUNION  SERMON 


HE  Memorial  Communion  Service  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing, May  U,  was  largely  attended  by  past  and  present 
members  of  the  Church.  Dr.  Gordons  hymn,  "  Years 
and  Aspirations,1'  written  on  the  occasion  of  the 
twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  his  installation,  was  sung 
by  the  Congregation.  The  choir  hymn  was  "Thou 
art,  0  God,  the  life  and  light,'"  set  to  an  arrangement 
from  Mozart  by  Mr.  Samuel  Carr,  who  played  the 
accompaniment.  The  historic  Communion  Silver  added 
much  to  the  beauty  and  dignity  of  the  service. 

The  subject  of  Dr.  Gordon's  sermon  was  "A  Cloud 
of  Witnesses" 


THE  COMMUNION  SERMON 

SOMETIMES  it  seems  to  one  that  the  life  of  the 
spirit  is  solitary  in  the  extreme,  as  when  this 
planet  at  night,  shrouded  in  cloud,  buffeted 
with  storm,  pelted  with  hail,  climbs  its  weary  way 
among  the  infinite  spaces.  Again,  we  become  aware 
of  the  glorious  fellowship  in  which  the  life  of  the 
spirit  is  lived,  as  when  this  planet,  the  atmosphere 
having  become  clear  and  serene  at  night,  travels 
forth  with  an  endless  fellowship  of  shining  worlds 
above,  beneath,  round  about.  It  is  to  the  sense  of 
fellowship  in  the  life  of  the  spirit  that  the  text 
speaks.  "Therefore,  seeing  we  are  compassed  about 
with  so  great  a  cloud  of  witnesses."  The  social 
life  in  God;  that  is  the  meaning  of  the  text;  all 
souls  in  Him,  and  all  souls  capable,  through  Him,  of 
living  in  one  transcendent  fellowship. 

Imagination  is  the  bugler  of  the  mind.  One 
moment  you  see  no  army,  —  nothing  but  the  bar- 
racks in  the  city,  apparently  empty,  —  nothing  but 
the  tents  in  the  field,  apparently  silent  and  deserted. 
Listen  to  the  notes  of  the  bugler;  in  response,  forth 
come  the  multitudes  of  men  falling  into  line,  an 

army  coming  from  the  invisible,  in  response  to  that 

ii 


[12] 

high  call.  Such  is  the  life  of  the  soul  when  it  is 
lived  truly.  Those  who  have  been  tempted  as  we 
are  and  have  triumphed,  those  who  have  sinned  as 
we  have  sinned,  and  been  forgiven,  those  who  have 
been  bereaved  and  have  found  the  great  consolation, 
those  who  have  been  troubled  with  a  thousand 
troubles  and  have  discovered  a  dwelling  of  peace, 
those  who  have  struggled  and  failed,  and  struggled 
again,  and  won  gloriously,  are  waiting  for  the 
bugler's  notes  to  come  forth  a  great  army,  to  pour 
their  inspiration  and  their  love  into  our  lives. 

How  shall  we  know  the  Lord  Jesus?  Two  thou- 
sand years  of  time  separate  his  life  from  ours; 
how  shall  we  know  him?  Only  as  imagination, 
guided  by  the  material  given  in  the  gospels  and  in 
the  New  Testament,  ordered,  restrained,  and  sent 
forward  in  its  working  by  fact  and  by  experience 
of  those  who  lived  with  Him,  only  as  imagination 
thus  working,  legitimately,  and  with  trustworthi- 
ness, brings,  as  it  will  bring,  into  the  field  of  our 
vision  the  great  Master,  as  he  lived  in  Galilee, 
as  he  went  from  village  to  village,  and  from  town 
to  town  in  Galilee,  as  he  spoke  by  the  sea,  from 
the  land,  and  from  the  boat  in  which  his  disciples 
were  with  him,  as  he  traveled  and  grew  weary  on 
his  journey,  and  as  he  went  to  the  great  city  where 
he  was  to  die.  His  person,  his  aspect,  his  be- 
havior, his  developing  character,  his  sublime  spirit, 
the  speaker,  the  wonderworker,  the  sufferer,  the 
man  who  gave  his  life  and  who  triumphed  over 


[i3] 

death,  —  all  this  may  come  back  a  great,  vivid, 
glorious  reality,  but  only  as  we  employ  the  re- 
ligious imagination.  Take  that  power  away,  and 
there  is  no  more  sense  of  Christ  in  us  than  there 
is  in  an  animal  by  our  side.  We  cannot  cherish 
and  we  cannot  chasten  this  power  of  imagination 
too  fully  in  all  the  humanities,  as  well  as  in  our 
whole  faith. 

In  the  second  place,  let  me  remind  you  of  the 
greatness  of  the  past.  Science  has  revolutionized 
our  modern  world;  applied  science  has  changed  the 
mode  of  our  living,  the  mode  of  our  business,  of 
our  travel,  of  our  intercommunication,  and  of  a 
hundred  other  things;  and  it  has  clothed  with  new 
power  many  professions  that  minister  to  the  tem- 
poral life  of  man.  For  all  this  we  are  thankful, 
infinitely  thankful;  but  this  does  not  imply  that 
we  are  bigger  than  they  who  went  before  us.  Ours 
is  largely  the  greatness  of  privilege;  those  who  went 
before  us  had  the  greatness  of  nature;  native, 
original,  creative  power. 

The  past  is  great,  immeasurably  greater  than  any 
present  generation.  We  are  but  the  front  wave, 
breaking  on  the  beach,  with  the  great  silent  swell 
and  the  Almighty  push  of  the  sea  behind  it.  Do 
not  let  us  forget  this  in  our  delight  in  our  own  age, 
in  our  thankfulness  that  we  are  born  when  we  are 
born  and  set  to  do  our  work  in  this  present  time; 
do  not  let  us  forget  the  majesty  of  the  past;  no 
man  can  be  great  who  ignores  it.    Do  not  let  this 


[i4] 

church  forget  the  seven  generations  that  have  gone 
before.  Call  them  up  in  imagination;  strong  men 
and  tender,  although  they  could  be  severe;  patient, 
high-bred,  beautiful  women;  all  equal  to  the  struggle, 
the  duty,  and  the  difficulty  of  life,  making  this  church 
a  centre  of  the  civilization  then  in  the  Colony  and  a 
voice  of  thunder  and  power  in  the  crises  through 
which  town  and  Colony  passed.  Call  them  up  as 
the  background  of  your  own  life,  and  when  you 
come  here  to  worship,  let  it  not  be  in  your  own 
name  only  and  those  of  your  fellow-worshippers, 
but  in  the  name  of  the  mighty  dead.  How  wide, 
deep,  rich,  reverent,  tender  should  our  worship  be, 
and  how  thrilled  with  the  high  humanities  of  the 
past  and  touched  with  the  graces  that  bloomed  on 
men  who  were  like  rock  and  on  women,  sad-faced 
but  sweet,  who  ennobled  the  church  in  their  day 
and  generation. 

Finally,  let  this  grow  into  a  habit  of  our  life; 
not  one  service  in  which  we  hold  in  dear,  reverent 
memory  the  disciples  of  the  Lord  Jesus  who  have 
preceded  us  in  the  faith  and  fellowship  of  this 
church;  let  it  become  the  habit  of  our  mind,  the 
mood  of  our  heart,  so  that  we  shall  perpetually 
live  in  the  atmosphere  of  a  goodly  fellowship.  I 
ask  you  to  open  the  windows  of  your  life,  and  let 
all  the  beautiful  faces  look  in  upon  it;  let  the  past 
of  your  own  life,  as  it  runs  back  into  the  mystic 
past  of  other  lives,  greet,  elevate,  chasten  and 
ennoble  all  your  days. 


[i5] 

Let  me  end  as  I  began,  with  the  two  aspects  of 
life  so  real  and  so  completely  complementary;  the 
solitary,  the  inviolable  individuality;  that  life  that 
we  live  alone  with  God,  its  duty,  its  accountability, 
its  suffering,  its  discipline,  its  unsharable  existence. 
Then  the  other,  the  divinely  ordained  fellowship. 
You  have  often  at  sea,  as  I  have,  when  the  sun  had 
gone  down  and  the  twilight  was  deepening  into 
the  darkness,  felt  the  utter,  almost  insupportable, 
loneliness  of  your  little  ship  on  the  wide,  wide  sea. 
You  have  gone  below  and  thought  upon  the  gloomy 
isolation  till  you  got  tired  and  sick  at  heart,  and 
before  turning  in,  you  have  gone  on  deck  once 
more,  to  see  the  whole  starry  hosts  out  to  bid 
you  welcome  and  to  tell  you  that  the  very  law  by 
which  all  these  lights  are  ruled  in  perfect  order 
is  gripping  your  ship,  holding  it  on  its  victorious 
way.  We  are  in  awful  truth  individual,  and  we  are 
divinely  joined  in  a  fellowship  across  the  contem- 
porary world,  across  the  whole  breath  of  history 
and  the  whole  sweep  of  the  universe.  We,  with 
all  other  souls,  live  and  move  and 
have  our  being  in  God. 


MR.  BUTLER'S  ADDRESS 


.T  the  Choral  Service,  Sunday  evening,  May  U,  Mendels- 
sohn's "Hymn  of  Praise"  was  sung  by  the  choir  and 
a  chorus  of  twenty  voices,  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
Wry.  The  Associate  Minister,  the  Reverend  Willis 
H.  Butler,  made  the  address. 


MR.  BUTLER'S  ADDRESS 

THE  service  which  we  are  enjoying  this  even- 
ing may  not  seem  an  altogether  appropriate 
manner  of  observing  the  Two-hundred  and 
Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  a  Church  which  was  founded 
by  Puritans.  It  is  popularly  supposed  that  along 
with  everything  else  that  is  beautiful,  the  Puri- 
tans had  no  love  for  music.  This,  however,  is  not 
strictly  true.  Some  of  the  leading  Puritans,  not- 
ably John  Milton,  were  not  only  lovers  of  music, 
but  were  skilled  musicians.  It  was  not  music  itself 
which  the  Puritans  so  violently  opposed.  In  their 
minds  music  was  associated  with  two  institutions 
which  to  them  were  equally  detestable,  the  Es- 
tablished Church  and  the  theatre.  The  vigor  of 
their  attack  against  what  they  quaintly  called 
"curious  music,"  by  which  they  meant  artistic 
singing,  antiphonal  chanting  and  the  use  of  organs, 
is  readily  explained  by  their  determined  attitude 
to  exclude  from  their  services  of  worship  every- 
thing that  suggested  the  ritualism  of  the  Church  of 
England. 

The  congregation  in  Colonial  days  was  familiar 
with  perhaps  a  half  dozen  tunes  to  which  the  psalms 

19 


\ 


L*>1 

were  set  and  sung  week  after  week  in  rotation,  re- 
gardless of  their  length.  A  half  hour  was  required 
for  the  Uning  out  and  singing  of  some  of  the  longer 
ones. 

The  position  of  Precentor  was  not  an  enviable 
one.  Judge  Sewall,  who  led  the  singing  in  the  Old 
South  Church,  made  the  following  entry  in  his 
diary  under  the  date  February  23,  1718:  "I  set 
York  tune  and  the  congregation  went  out  of  it 
into  St.  David's  in  the  very  second  going  over. 
They  did  the  same  three  weeks  before.  This  is  the 
second  sign.  It  seems  to  me  an  intimation  for  me 
to  resign  the  Precentor's  place  to  a  better  voice. 
I  have  through  the  divine  long  suffering  and  favor 
done  it  for  24  years  and  now  God  in  His  providence 
seems  to  call  me  off,  my  voice  being  enfeebled." 

It  was  about  this  time  (1720)  that  the  contro- 
versy about  singing  by  note  or  singing  by  rule 
arose  and  threatened  to  destroy  the  peace  and 
unity  of  many  a  church.  Most  of  the  ministers 
advocated  a  much  needed  reform  in  the  matter  of 
Church  music,  but  the  more  conservative  brethren 
objected  on  the  ground  that  the  new  style  of  sing- 
ing came  from  Rome,  that  it  would  lead  to  the 
Church  of  England,  and  that  it  would  result  in  the 
introduction  of  organs.  They  declared  that  the 
old  style  was  more  solemn,  therefore  much  more 
suitable  and  becoming.  Speaking  of  the  proposed 
change,  one  objector  remarked,  "It  looks  very  un- 
likely to  be  the  right  way,  because  that  young  people 


[21] 

fall  in  with  it:  They  are  not  wont  to  be  so  forward 
for  anything  that  is  good." 

After  many  sermons  had  been  preached  and  tracts 
written  on  this  subject  the  controversy  ended  in 
the  introduction  of  new  tunes  and  this  led  to  the 
forming  of  that  New  England  institution,  the  sing- 
ing school,  in  which  young  people  met  to  practice 
the  unfamiliar  tunes.  Those  who  had  learned  to 
sing  were  assigned  special  seats  in  the  meeting- 
house, and  so  the  choir  came  into  existence,  but  the 
practice  of  lining  out  the  psalm  continued  until  the 
choir,  in  some  churches,  impatiently  refused  to  wait 
for  the  Deacon  to  finish  reading  the  line  before  they 
started  to  sing  it. 

The  woful  prophecy  that  musical  instruments 
would  soon  follow  the  introduction  of  new  tunes 
was  speedily  fulfilled.  The  violoncello,  or  bass 
viol,  called  in  those  days  "The  Lord's  fiddle," 
was  the  first  instrument  to  be  used.  Violins  were 
forbidden  on  the  ground  that  they  were  too  sug- 
gestive of  dance  music,  but  as  a  compromise 
measure  they  were  allowed  in  some  meetinghouses 
provided  they  were  played  wrong  end  up.  By 
some  strange  casuistry,  which  reminds  one  of  the 
days  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  a  violin  played 
it  an  inverted  position  ceased  to  be  a  violin  and 
became  a  small  bass  viol! 

Our  Puritan  forefathers  appear  to  have  been 
peculiarly  prejudiced  against  the  organ.  In  1713 
an  organ  was  sent  from  England  as  the  gift  of 


[22] 

Thomas  Brattle  to  the  Brattle  St.  Church  in  Boston. 
For  nine  months  the  instrument  lay  unpacked  in 
the  porch  of  the  church  to  which  it  had  been  pre- 
sented, as  the  members  could  not  conscientiously 
accept  it.  It  was  finally  transferred  and  set  up  in 
King's  Chapel. 

From  an  article  published  in  the  Commercial 
Gazette,  Oct.  7,  1822,  we  learn  that  "a  large  and 
elegant  organ,  imported  from  London  in  the  Ship 
London  Packet  by  the  Old  South  Society,  is  now 
erecting  in  their  church:  it  is  said  to  be  much 
superior  to  any  ever  imported  into  this  country." 
But  even  at  this  rather  late  day  it  was  not  without 
some  misgivings  that  the  step  was  taken,  the  minister, 
Rev.  Benjamin  Wisner,  reluctantly  giving  his  con- 
sent. 

Mendelssohn's  "Hymn  of  Praise"  was  first  sung 
in  i84o  at  a  festival  to  commemorate  the  4ooth 
anniversary  of  the  invention  of  the  art  of  printing. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  first  book  that 
was  printed  in  this  country  was  the  Bay  Psalm 
Book  in  i64o,  on  the  press  that  was  set  up  in  Cam- 
bridge in  1639.  Notwithstanding  its  defects,  this 
metrical  version  of  the  Psalms  met  a  real  need  and 
was  at  once  adopted  by  nearly  every  church  in 
the  colony,  and  went  through  many  editions. 

Near  the  close  of  his  life,  Rev.  Thomas  Prince, 
regretting  that  the  book  should,  "on  account  of 
the  flatnesses  in  diverse  places  be  wholly  laid  aside," 
undertook  a  fresh  revision,  striving  "after  a  yet 


[23] 
nearer  approach  to  the  inspired  original,  as  well 
as  to  the  rules  of  poetry."  This  version  was  in- 
troduced in  the  Old  South  Church  the  Sunday 
following  the  death  of  Mr.  Prince  in  1758  and 
continued  in  use  until  1786. 

When  one  thinks  of  the  service  that  is  held  to- 
night in  this  building  with  its  superb  organ,  its 
choir,  and  the  music  to  which  the  Psalms  are  sung, 
one  cannot  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  contrast 
presented    by    the    old    Meetinghouse    on    Wash- 
ington Street  in  which  this  church  worshipped  for 
one  hundred  and  forty  years.    The  spirit  of  rever- 
ence, without  which  no  worship  is  acceptable  to 
God,  was  there.     Notwithstanding  the  simplicity 
of  the  forms  which  he  used  there  never 
was  a  more  devout  worshipper 
than  the  Puritan. 


THE  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE 


s 


UNDAY  morning,  May  11,  Dr.  Gordon  delivered  a 
historical  discourse,  taking  as  his  text  "  The  Memory 
of  the  just  is  blessed." 

The  devotional  exercises   included  the  hymn  "Give 
ear  ye  children  to  my  laws,1'  sung  by  the  Congregation. 


THE  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE 

"the  memory  of  the  just  is  blessed" 

Proverbs  10,  7 

HISTORY  as  a  mighty,  conscious  force  is 
declared  in  the  noble  words  of  this  ancient 
Hebrew  proverb.  There  are  the  souls  of 
the  just,  worthy  of  human  remembrance,  and  there 
is  the  just  memory  by  which  they  are  remembered. 
These  two  forces,  the  just  who  are  worthy  of  re- 
membrance, and  the  just  memory  by  which  they 
are  held  in  remembrance,  are  the  channels  of  the 
chief  moral  and  religious  influences  in  the  world. 
Without  them  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  God  himself 
could  obtain  adequate  access  to  the  human  mind; 
without  them  history  in  the  highest  sense  would  be 
impossible. 

In  this  mighty  order  of  conscious  history,  ten- 
derly, reverently,  gratefully  we  place  the  Old  South 
Church  today.  I  shall  give  a  rapid  sketch  of  the 
church  from  its  founding  in  1669  to  the  close  of  the 
pastorate  of  my  immediate  predecessor  in   1882; 

it  is  a  long  story  but  a  thrilling  one. 

27 


[28] 

I.  The  Founders 

X  HE  Third  Church  of  Boston,  afterward  known 
as  the  Old  South  Church,  was  organized  in  May, 
1669.  That  we  may  gain  a  more  vivid  idea  of 
that  far  distant  time  let  us  recall  that  when  the 
Third  Church  in  Boston  was  founded  Shakespeare 
had  been  in  his  grave  only  fifty-three  years;  Bacon 
forty-three  years;  Hugo  Grotius,  the  Dutch  states- 
man and  jurist,  twenty-four  years;  Descartes,  the 
great  French  philosopher,  nineteen  years,  and 
Oliver  Cromwell  eleven  years.  At  that  time  the 
landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  was  only 
forty-nine  years  in  the  past;  now  it  is  nearly  three 
hundred.  When  the  Third  Church  of  Boston  was 
organized  John  Milton  was  living  in  London,  at 
the  age  of  sixty,  with  five  more  years  of  life  before 
him.  John  Dryden  was  thirty-eight,  John  Locke 
thirty-seven,  Spinoza  thirty-six,  Sir  Isaac  Newton 
twenty-six,  Leibnitz  twenty-three,  and  Daniel  De 
Foe,  the  wizard  of  the  world's  childhood,  was  a 
boy  of  ten.  Thus  the  immediate  historic  back- 
ground and  the  great  world  figures  in  composition 
with  the  vigorous  men  who  founded  this  church 
make  a  picture  of  extraordinary  impressiveness,  a 
picture,  too,  rich  in  prophecy  concerning  the  future. 
The  First  Church  of  Boston  was  founded  in 
i63o  and  for  the  ensuing  twenty  years  was  the  only 
church  in  the  town.  In  i65o,  by  the  hearty  con- 
currence of  the  First  Church,  the  Second  Church 


[29] 

was  founded.  These  two  churches  were  the  sole 
Puritan  guardians  of  the  religious  life  of  the  town 
for  the  next  nineteen  years,  and  they  would  have 
continued  for  some  years  longer  to  be  the  sole 
ministers  to  the  religious  life  of  the  community  had 
not  a  sharp  and  irreconcilable  difference  of  opinion 
originated  in  the  membership  of  the  First  Church. 

We  came  into  existence  as  a  church  by  the  agency 
of  a  family  row;  a  good,  clean  row,  as  we  shall  see. 
What  was  the  trouble?  The  Rev.  John  Norton, 
one  of  the  ministers  of  the  First  Church,  died  in 
1 663;  the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  his  colleague,  died 
in  1667.  These  were  eminent  men;  they  were 
graduates  of  Cambridge  University,  England, 
thoroughly  trained,  cosmopolitan  in  mind,  in  cul- 
ture; they  were  ministers  of  the  Anglican  com- 
munion who  had  been  driven  from  that  communion 
for  conscience'  sake.  They  came  to  Boston  and 
in  due  time  were  chosen  the  ministers  of  the  First 
Church. 

They  died,  as  I  have  said,  one  in  i663,  the  other 
in  1667.  The  First  Church,  bereaved  of  teacher  and 
pastor,  turned  in  search  of  ministers  worthy  of 
those  whom  they  had  lost.  They  speedily  found 
one  minister  in  a  young  man,  born  in  i632,  the 
Rev.  James  Allen,  who  was  chosen  and  settled, 
so  far  as  we  can  discover,  without  difference  of 
opinion.  The  church  then  fixed  its  eye  upon  a 
prominent  man,  the  Reverend  John  Davenport, 
minister  of  the  First  Church  in  the  colony  of  New 


[3o] 

Haven.  The  colony  had  been  founded  by  him  and 
others,  and  for  thirty  years  he  had  rendered  illus- 
trious service  there;  he  was  an  eminent  man  and 
a  godly.  The  majority  of  the  members  of  the  First 
Church  wanted  Mr.  Davenport  to  be  their  minister; 
the  minority  objected  on  three  grounds.  Their 
first  objection  was  that  Mr.  Davenport  was  too 
old;  he  was  seventy;  his  work  was  practically 
done.  Why  should  he  be  invited  to  come  to  Boston 
to  begin  a  new  work  when  unequal  to  it?  The 
course  of  events  proved  that  thus  far  the  dissenters 
were  right,  for  Mr.  Davenport  lived  only  fifteen 
months  after  his  installation  as  minister  of  the 
First  Church  of  Boston.  The  second  ground  of 
objection  was  that  Mr.  Davenport  had  not  been 
properly  dismissed  from  his  church  in  New  Haven. 
The  third  objection  was  the  most  serious;  it  was 
on  the  question  of  baptism. 

Baptism  is  a  light  affair  with  us,  I  regret  to  say; 
it  was  a  matter  of  the  profoundest  concern  to 
Christians  at  that  time,  for  if  not  absolutely 
universal  the  general  belief  was  that  Christian 
baptism  was  necessary  to  salvation.  Hence  the  hor- 
rible doctrine,  sometimes  held  as  a  logical  conse- 
quence, —  of  the  damnation  of  unbaptized  infants. 

In  regard  to  this  quarrel  about  baptism,  there 
are  three  points  in  the  controversy.  First,  members 
of  the  church  in  full  communion  are  those  who  have 
been  baptized  and  who  have  been  the  subjects  of 
regenerating    grace,    who    are   conscious   that   the 


[3i] 
Holy  Spirit  has  changed  their  hearts  from  darkness 
to  light  and  from  enmity  to  God  to  the  love  of 
God;  these  alone  are  members  of  the  church  in 
full  communion.  It  was  universally  recognized 
that  members  of  the  church  in  the  highest  sense 
of  the  term  are  those  who  are  conscious  of  spiritual 
renewal,  and  who  make  that  confession,  with  what- 
ever fears  and  uncertainties,  as  their  veritable 
state  of  heart.  About  this  there  was  no  contro- 
versy. 

The  children  of  such  persons  were  universally 
regarded  as  included  in  the  covenant  of  grace. 
When  the  parents,  such  as  I  have  described,  were 
dismissed,  the  children  were  dismissed  with  them. 
When  parents,  such  as  I  have  described  were  ad- 
mitted into  fellowship  in  a  new  church  by  letter, 
their  children  were  admitted  with  them;  they  were 
children  of  regenerated  parents,  and  as  such  were 
baptized  and  belonged  so  far  to  the  church.  There 
was  no  difficulty  about  that  second  position;  it 
was  universally  admitted. 

The  trouble  came  with  the  third  generation.  The 
children  of  those  children,  provided  they  did  not 
go  on  and  experience  religion,  become  converted, 
conscious  subjects  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  entering  into 
full  communion  with  the  church  of  Christ;  pro- 
vided they  did  not,  but  remained  simply  members 
of  the  church  by  baptism,  what  is  to  be  done  with 
their  children?  Are  they  to  be  baptized?  "No," 
said  the  conservatives,  with  Mr.  Davenport  at  their 


[32] 

head.  "Yes,"  said  the  liberal  men;  "these  children 
are  not  pagan  children."  Here  we  have  on  our 
hands  the  fight. 

In  anything  that  concerns  family  life,  in  any 
serious  difference  over  the  children  of  the  church, 
there  is  sure  to  be  war.  No  man  is  wild  enough 
to  go  about  and  say  of  the  babies  that  they  are 
not  good-looking;  unless,  indeed,  he  is  willing  to 
become  one  of  the  most  unpopular  of  men. 

Mr.  Davenport  was  called,  the  minority  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding.  Their  opposition  con- 
tinuing, the  First  Church  at  length  called  a  council 
of  the  ministers  and  messengers  of  four  neighboring 
churches  to  give  advice  as  to  the  treatment  of  its 
dissenting  brethren.  They  met,  reviewed  the  case 
piously,  deplored  the  division,  but  advised  that 
the  dissenting  brethren  be  dismissed,  that  they 
might  found  another  church. 

Thereupon  twenty-nine  men  petitioned  the  First 
Church  for  letters  of  dismission  for  themselves  and 
their  families,  that  they  might  unite  in  a  new  church 
fellowship,  according  to  the  advice  of  the  council. 
A  meeting  of  the  First  Church  was  called  to  con- 
sider this  request.  The  first  thing  done  at  the  meet- 
ing, after  the  reading  of  the  petition,  was  to  exclude 
the  petitioners;  they  had  no  business  there.  Some 
of  their  wives  remained,  hoping  to  acquaint  their 
good  husbands  with  what  took  place  in  the  meet- 
ing; but  they,  too,  were  excluded.  After  their  with- 
drawal the  Church  proceeded  to  renew  its  call  to 


[33] 
Mr.  Davenport,  and  apparently  no  action  was  taken 
at  that  meeting  on  the  petition  of  the  dissenters. 

Their  request  for  dismission  was  repeated  several 
times,  both  before  and  after  the  installation  of  Mr. 
Davenport,  but  was  never  granted.  At  a  meeting  of 
the  First  Church  in  March,  1669,  it  was  formally 
denied  by  vote,  and  at  the  same  meeting  the  re- 
quest of  the  dissenting  brethren  for  the  calling  of 
another  council  was  also  refused. 

"The  dissenting  brethren  met  to  seek  the  Lord 
to  direct  and  guide  them  in  considering  what  the 
Lord  called  them  to  do  in  this  their  present  distress." 
The  only  thing  possible  seemed  to  be  to  call  a 
council  of  several  churches  for  advice.  This  they 
did.  This  second  council  made  three  attempts  to 
meet  the  ministers  and  brethren  of  the  First  Church 
in  conference,  but  each  time  their  overtures  were 
rejected.  They  then  reviewed  the  action  of  the 
first  council,  reviewed  the  case  between  the  First 
Church  and  its  dissenting  brethren,  and  advised 
that  the  latter  might  use  their  Christian  liberty 
to  unite  in  another  church  fellowship,  seceding 
from  the  membership  of  the  First  Church. 

The  case  was  next  reviewed  by  the  magistrates. 
Seven  of  them  expressed  their  approval  of  the  for- 
mation of  a  new  church  by  the  dissenters.  The 
Governor  and  five  others  expressed  disapproval. 
The  Governor,  by  the  way,  and  two  of  the  five  were 
members  of  the  First  Church.  The  dissenters  won 
again  on  the  third  trial  by  a  majority  of  one. 


[34] 

The  matter  was  next  taken  up  by  the  General 
Court  at  two  sessions  thereof.  Here,  at  the  session 
of  167 1,  two  years  after  the  formation  of  the  Third 
Church,  the  vindication  of  its  friends  was  complete, 
a  large  majority  voting  that  they  should  be  judged 
innocent  and  unduly  calumniated  and  misrepre- 
sented, although  seventeen  deputies  dissented. 

Looking  back  upon  it,  we  see  that  the  quarrel 
was  a  noble  one.  Both  were  right,  both  wrong; 
each  held  a  half-truth  complementary  to  the  half- 
truth  held  by  the  other.  The  First  Church  was 
absolutely  right  in  claiming  that  the  members  of 
the  church  should  be  men  and  women  who  were 
conscious  disciples  of  the  Lord  Jesus  and  under  the 
power  of  a  great  resolve  to  live  in  thought,  in  feel- 
ing, in  action  under  the  sovereignty  of  his  Presence. 
No  church  can  last  long  unless  founded  upon  that. 
The  religious  life  of  the  members  of  the  church  is 
fundamental.  They  must  be  conscious  disciples  of 
Jesus  in  intellect,  in  heart,  in  will,  desirous  of  ever 
greater  submission  of  their  personality  to  his  Divine 
Presence. 

That  was  a  great  contention  by  our  mother 
church,  but  the  next  contention,  that  of  the  people 
who  formed  the  Third  Church,  was  equally  vital. 
Christianity  is  a  social  affair;  it  includes  the  family, 
society;  it  is  a  biological  force.  There  was  the 
great  truth  to  which  those  men  and  women  bore 
witness  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  Chris- 
tianity is  a  biological  force,  and  children  of  Chris- 


[35] 
tian  parents  are  born  hopeful  members  in  the  King- 
dom of  God,  and  should  never  be  allowed  to  know 
themselves  as  other  than  disciples  of  Jesus;  dear, 
accepted  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Lord  God 
Almighty. 

As  I  read  the  story  I  am  immensely  impressed 
with  the  stern  character  and  the  independence  of 
the  founders  of  the  church.  They  almost  lean  back- 
ward, they  are  so  independent.  They  remind  me 
of  the  two  Scottish  Highlanders  lost  in  a  small 
boat  off  the  West  coast  of  Scotland.  They  knew 
not  what  to  do.  One  stood  at  the  outlook,  and  the 
other  resorted  to  prayer,  saying,  "0  Lord,  if  you 
will  only  lead  our  little  boat  out  of  this  fog  to  the 
land,  we  shall  be  forever  beholden  unto  you." 
Just  then  the  other  cried,  "Stop!  I  see  the  land. 
Let  us  not  be  beholden  to  anybody." 

Pale  and  shadowy  these  men  and  women  appear 
after  two  hundred  and  fifty  years;  but  they  were 
remarkable  men  and  women.  The  dignity,  the 
patience,  the  sweetness  of  the  women,  their  fine 
self-control,  and  the  heroic  courage  and  rugged 
integrity  of  the  men  impress  one  greatly. 

Thomas  Thacher,  the  first  minister  of  the  Third 
Church,  was  born  in  Somersetshire,  England,  the 
son  of  a  vicar  in  the  English  Church.  He  was 
born  in  1620,  and  at  the  age  of  fifteen  came  to 
this  country.  It  has  been  interesting  to  me  to  note 
that  the  first  minister  of  this  church  was  an  im- 
migrant, as  the  sixteenth  minister  was  an  immigrant. 


[36] 
I  have  felt  happier,  less  lonely,  since  I  knew  it. 
Whatever  contempt  the  intervening  generations 
might  have  for  the  class  to  whom  I  belong,  I  could 
shake  hands  with  Thomas  Thacher.  You  have  all 
heard  of  Thacher's  Island,  off  Cape  Ann.  That 
Island  was  named  in  recognition  of  the  salvation 
from  disaster  of  two  kinsmen  of  Thomas  Thacher's 
when  the  ship  on  which  they  sailed  was  wrecked 
in  a  storm  off  Cape  Ann.  Thacher's  Island  should 
always  recall  the  first  minister  of  the  Third  Church 
of  Boston.  Thomas  Thacher  served  as  minister 
to  the  church  in  Weymouth  for  twenty  years;  he 
joined  the  First  Church  of  Boston  in  1667.  After 
the  tumult  arose,  he,  like  a  wise  man,  asked  for  a 
letter  of  dismission  to  the  church  in  Charlestown. 
He  was  independent  of  the  quarrel,  and  when  the 
Third  Church  was  organized  he  was  selected  to  be 
its  first  minister  and  was  ordained  in  February, 
1670.  He  was  a  physician,  as  well  as  a  minister. 
We  cannot  tell  much  about  his  preaching;  we  know 
that  he  was  greatly  revered.  One  clear  and  memor- 
able thing  has  come  down  to  us,  about  this  first 
minister  of  the  Old  South.  He  was  a  man  greatly 
gifted  in  prayer.  The  fervor  and  power  of  his  soul 
in  prayer  impressed  everybody;  he  thus  poured 
new  life  into  the  little  community  whose  beloved 
leader  he  was  for  eight  short  years  and  a  half. 
He  died  at  the  early  age  of  fifty-eight.  An  in- 
ventory of  his  estate  was  taken  and  you  will  be 
interested  to  note  two  items  in  that  inventory; 


[37] 
he  left  a  slave  maid  and  a  slave  young  man  —  as 
parts  of  his  estate.  What  a  strange  thing  it  is  to  us, 
living  today,  to  think  of  a  minister  of  Christ  owning 
slaves!  What  a  strangely  affecting  glimpse  that  is 
into  a  social  order  that  has  happily  passed  away! 

Many  of  you  have  been  in  Westminster  Abbey; 
you  have  spent  hours  and  days  in  that  mausoleum 
of  the  great  dead  of  a  thousand  years  of  English 
history;  you  have  wandered  about  and  read  the 
inscriptions,  one  after  the  other;  you  have  said 
that  without  knowledge,  without  sympathy,  with- 
out historical  imagination  those  inscriptions  are  as 
blank  and  dumb  as  the  hieroglyphics  written  on 
Egyptian  tombs,  obelisks  and  pyramids;  that  with 
knowledge,  sympathy,  historical  imagination  you 
can  raise  the  dead  through  a  thousand  years,  put 
them  in  their  environments,  see  them  at  their 
separate  tasks  and  all  together  working,  the  great 
generations  and  the  generations  of  the  great  in 
succession,  till  they  have  evolved  the  richness  and 
power  and  hope  of  the  British  empire  of  today. 

The  church  register  of  the  Old  South  Church  is  a 
mere  blank  hieroglyph  if  we  come  to  it  without 
knowledge,  without  sympathy,  without  piety,  with- 
out the  gift  of  historic  imagination;  but  if  we  come 
with  these  faculties  the  dead  live  again;  we  see  the 
Founders  at  their  task,  manfully  performing  it, 
building  for  us  and  for  all  generations  that  have 
intervened  between  them  and  us.  As  we  behold 
them,   our  minds  are  filled  with  admiration  and 


[38] 
reverence.  They  builded  better  than  they  knew; 
they  founded  better  than  they  knew;  they  so 
founded  that  what  they  founded  has  existed  for 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years.  And  with  similar 
faith,  similar  love  and  similar  devotion  we  can 
help  to  make  the  church  they  founded  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago  prophetic  of  a  life  in  the  future 
for  a  thousand  years. 


s 


II.   Colonial  Leaders 


AMUEL  WILLARD,  altogether  the  greatest 
minister  of  the  church  throughout  the  Colonial 
period,  was  born  in  i64o,  graduated  from  Harvard 
College  in  1659,  became  minister  of  the  church  in 
1678,  and  until  his  death  in  1707,  a  period  of  twenty- 
nine  years  and  five  months,  was  an  acknowledged 
leader  throughout  New  England.  In  1701  he  be- 
came vice-president  of  Harvard  College  and  served 
in  that  office  until  his  death,  declining  to  be  made 
president  because  he  would,  in  that  case,  have  been 
obliged  to  leave  his  parish  and  take  up  his  resi- 
dence in  Cambridge.  Twenty  months  before  he 
died  he  baptized  one  of  the  most  gifted  and  famous 
of  American  statesmen,  Benjamin  Franklin.  This 
quivering  little  mass  of  flesh  hardly  a  day  old  was 
carried  across  the  wintry  street  on  the  6th  day  of 
January,  1706,  to  be  baptized  by  Samuel  Willard, 
the  parents  evidently  thinking  that  the  mid-winter 
climate  here  was  less  to  be  dreaded  than  the  torrid 
climate  in  the  other  world. 


[39] 

Samuel  Willard  was  preacher,  lecturer,  adminis- 
trator, and  in  every  function  uncommon;  he  was 
leading  citizen  as  well  as  leading  minister.  For 
the  last  nineteen  years  of  his  life  he  gave  a  monthly 
lecture  to  which  not  only  the  thoughtful  people 
about  here  came,  but  students  of  divinity  and 
thoughtful  persons  from  all  parts  of  New  England. 
Twenty  years  after  his  death  these  lectures  were 
published  in  a  volume  which  it  is  an  athletic  feat 
to  lift  and  carry.  For  many  years  this  book  was 
one  of  the  chief  sources  of  nourishment  for  the 
theological  student.  I  advise  you  to  examine  it, 
and  consider  the  nourishment  upon  which  students 
and  others  were  fed  to  support  them  in  their  faith 
in  those  days. 

There  are  three  striking,  dramatic  incidents  in 
the  ministry  of  Samuel  Willard.  The  first  is  the 
reconciliation  of  the  mother  church  and  the  Third 
Church.  Again  and  again  the  Third  Church  had 
taken  steps  toward  a  reconciliation  with  the  First 
or  mother  church;  each  advance  had  been  repelled 
with  indignity;  I  do  not  think  I  state  it  too  strongly 
when  I  say  with  insult.  Probably  a  few  of  the  more 
bitter  had  died  in  the  thirteen  years.  At  any  rate, 
in  1682,  thirteen  years  after  the  division,  a  move 
was  made  by  the  First  Church  toward  a  reconcilia- 
tion. A  vote  of  the  First  Church  was  sent  by  Rev. 
James  Allen,  the  minister,  to  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Willard.  This  was  entertained  most  cordially  by 
Mr.    Willard,    who    wrote    in   return    saying    that 


[4o] 

nothing  would  please  him  more  than  to  bring  about 
a  complete  reconciliation  of  their  differences.  The 
note  in  reply  to  this  from  the  First  Church  is  a 
model  of  penitence  and  Christian  manliness: 

Honoured,  Worshipfull,  Reverend,  Beloved  in  the  Lord 

We  have  received  your  return  by  the  worshipfull 
Mr.  John  Hull,  esqr.,  and  the  reverend  Mr.  Samuel 
Willard  to  our  motion  to  hear,  wherein  you  express  your 
thankful  reception  and  full  concurrence  with  the  con- 
dition of  accommodation  therein  mentioned,  which  we 
declare  to  be  acceptable  to  us.  And,  wherein  our  sinful 
infirmities  have  been  grievous  to  you  or  any  of  your 
church,  we  mutually  ask  forgiveness  of  God  and  you. 
And  desire  all  offences  we  judge  have  been  given  us,  may 
be  forgiven  and  forgotten,  desiring  to  forgive  others 
even  as  we  believe  God  for  Christ's  sake  hath  forgiven  us. 
And  we  further  entreat  that  both  our  motion  and  your 
return  and  this  conclusion  may  be  recorded  with  you, 
as  it  shall  be  with  us,  in  memory  of  a  happy  issue  of  our 
uncomfortable  dispute  and  the  way  of  our  peace. 

Now  the  God  of  peace,  that  brought  again  from  the 
dead  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  great  Shepherd  of  the 
sheep,  by  the  blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant,  make  you 
perfect  in  every  good  work  to  do  his  will,  working  in  you 
that  which  is  most  well  pleasing  in  his  sight. 
So  pray, 

Honoured,  Reverend,  Beloved: 
your  brethren  in  the  faith  and 
fellowship  of  the  gospel, 

James  Allen, 
John  Wiswall, 
with  the  full  and  unanimous  consent  of  the  brethren. 

Surely  this  is  beautiful.    It  is  good  to  fight  when 
you  have  a  good  cause  and  good  to  win;   it  is  sore 


[4i] 

to  be  defeated  when  you  have  a  bad  cause;  but 
better  still,  when  the  fight  is  over,  for  both  sides 
to  get  together  as  brethren.  Think  what  an  ex- 
hibition of  this  we  have  had  in  our  own  country. 
When  I  came  to  this  country  in  1781  the  gulf 
between  the  North  and  the  South  was  deep  and 
almost  impassable.  The  gulf  has  not  only  been 
bridged,  it  has  been  drained  and  filled  up.  There 
is  something  to  be  said  for  the  position  of  the 
Southern  lady,  by  whose  side  one  of  our  historians 
sat  at  dinner  recently  and  who  when  asked  if  she 
were  interested  in  history,  replied,  "No,  I  want  to 
let  bygones  be  bygones!" 

The  second  dramatic  incident  in  the  life  of  the 
Third  Church  refers  to  the  coming  of  Governor 
Andros  from  England  with  a  warrant  to  secure 
equal  ecclesiastical  rights  for  Episcopalians  in  the 
town  of  Boston.  That  sounds  fair  until  you  recall 
the  fact  that  there  were  no  equal  rights  in  England 
for  anybody  but  Episcopalians;  that  the  two 
ablest  Puritan  ministers,  John  Howe  and  Richard 
Baxter,  were  sacrificed  because  they  were  apostles 
of  Jesus  and  freedom.  Andros  called  together  the 
ministers  of  the  town  of  Boston  and  told  them  that 
they  must  build  a  chapel  for  the  Anglicans.  A 
modest  request,  surely.  You  note  the  faces  of  the 
ministers  with  a  considerable  frown  on  them.  The 
second  request  was  still  more  interesting:  "You 
must  pay  the  salary  of  the  minister  of  the  Anglican 
chapel."     The  frown  deepens.     The  third  request 


[4a] 

was  still  more  appalling:  it  was  not  a  request,  it 
was  an  ultimatum.  The  Governor  requisitions  the 
meetinghouse  of  the  Old  South  for  the  Anglicans  till 
such  time  as  they  shall  have  a  chapel  of  their  own; 
the  meetings  must  be  held  at  a  time  to  suit  him,  and 
the  ministers  of  the  church  under  requisition  must 
arrange  their  devotions  in  the  odd  hours  of  the  day. 
Mr.  Willard  and  his  men  protested  at  each  step,  in 
the  most  vigorous  and  manly  fashion.  They  told  the 
Governor  that  their  meetinghouse  was  their  own 
property.  The  Governor  told  them  in  reply  that 
he  owned  the  patents  of  the  Colony  and  vacated 
them  all  by  a  word,  and  that  all  the  meeting- 
houses in  the  Colony  belonged  to  him. 

Three  years  of  this  sort  of  thing  stirred  the  free 
men  of  Boston.  They  appointed  a  committee  of 
public  safety,  and  arrested  the  Governor  and  some 
of  his  men  and  threw  them  into  jail.  For  this  they 
undoubtedly  would  have  suffered  capital  punish- 
ment had  not  a  revolution  occurred,  had  not 
James  II  fled  to  France,  had  not  William  and  Mary 
ascended  the  throne  in  his  stead.  This  commit- 
tee of  public  safety  took  Governor  Andros,  put 
him  on  board  a  ship,  and  sent  him  home  as  an  un- 
desirable citizen.  A  cleaner,  finer,  manlier  deed 
has  never  been  done  in  the  history  of  Boston  than 
that;  and  Samuel  Willard  and  his  men  were  in  it 
for  all  they  were  worth.  Examples  they  are  of 
the  kind  of  men  who  cared  for  the  Old  South  Church 
in  that  day. 


[43] 

The  third  dramatic  incident  refers  to  a  sea  fight. 
A  piratical  vessel  under  command  of  one  Captain 
Pounds  raided  the  vessels  on  our  coast  and  tem- 
porarily destroyed  the  commerce  of  the  town  of 
Boston.  Captain  Pease  with  his  Lieutenant,  mem- 
bers of  Mr.  Willard's  congregation,  got  together  a 
crew,  armed  a  sloop  and  set  forth  to  find  the  robber. 
They  found  the  vessel  in  Vineyard  Sound.  After 
a  bloody  fight,  they  captured  the  vessel  and  re- 
turned with  their  prize;  and  all  the  ways  of  the 
sea  leading  into  Boston  were  made  safe  and  calm. 
Captain  Pease  lost  his  life  in  the  fight.  Tender  and 
impressive  must  have  been  the  service  in  the  Old 
South  Church  the  following  Sunday  when  a  collec- 
tion was  taken  in  aid  of  the  widow  and  four  father- 
less children  of  the  heroic  man,  and  also  for  the 
families  of  the  other  men  who  had  lost  their  lives 
in  maintaining  the  freedom  of  the  sea. 

Samuel  Willard  was  an  uncommon  man;  he  was 
great  as  a  teacher,  administrator  and  as  an  influence; 
he  was  perhaps  the  strongest  intellectual  and  moral 
force  in  the  New  England  of  his  time.  There  is  a 
good  story  that  shows  that  Mr.  Willard  had  a 
happy  sense  of  humor.  He  had  a  son-in-law  who 
was  a  minister;  an  excellent  writer,  but,  it  would 
seem,  not  a  very  good  speaker.  Mr.  Willard  ex- 
changed pulpits  with  him  one  morning.  The  outcry 
against  the  sermon  of  the  son-in-law  was  fierce. 
It  was  the  poorest  sermon  they  had  heard  time  out 
of  mind;   they  begged  him  never  to  exchange  with 


[44] 

that  man  again,  even  if  he  was  his  son-in-law. 
Mr.  Willard,  like  a  wise  man,  took  his  discipline  in 
patience  and  calmness.  Two  years  passed;  he 
borrowed  of  his  son-in-law  that  same  sermon  and 
preached  it  to  that  same  congregation,  who,  like 
many  another  congregation  since  his  day,  had  for- 
gotten all  about  the  sermon.  The  chorus  of  praise 
was  tremendous.  Mr.  Willard  had  never  exceeded 
that  effort;  they  begged  a  copy  of  the  sermon  to 
print  for  public  circulation.  "He  that  hath  ears 
to  hear,  let  him  hear." 

The  most  famous  layman  of  this  period,  and  a 
great  leader,  was  Judge  Sewall.  He,  like  so  many 
of  the  early  men,  was  an  immigrant.  The  Judge 
was  born  at  Horton,  England,  in  i652;  he  came  to 
this  country  with  his  parents  in  1661 ;  they  settled 
at  Newbury.  He  was  graduated  from  Harvard 
College  in  167 1  and  united  with  the  Old  South 
Church  in  1677  at  the  age  of  twenty-five.  He  married 
a  daughter  of  a  founder  of  the  church,  John  Hull, 
and  came  into  possession  of  a  very  considerable 
fortune.  He  became  Magistrate  in  i684;  Councillor 
1692;  Judge  of  Superior  Court  in  1692;  the  last 
ten  years  of  his  judgeship  he  was  Chief  Justice. 
In  addition  he  was  a  judge  of  probate  and  had 
access  to  the  wills  of  his  friends,  which  also  became 
an  item  in  his  after  experience. 

His  first  wife  and  he  lived  together  nearly  forty- 
two  years.  They  had  fourteen  children.  The 
second  wife  lived  only  seven  months;    the  third 


C45] 

wife  was  a  Newton  lady.  The  Judge  was  good- 
looking;  he  was  a  social  force  in  the  new  com- 
munity; he  was  welcomed  everywhere  and  went 
everywhere,  was  a  good  talker  and  he  had  a  good 
memory.  He  was  the  first  to  protest  against  African 
slavery;  he  wrote  a  noble  pamphlet  on  the  selling 
of  Joseph  by  his  brethren;  he  was  one  of  the  first 
voices  in  what  became  one  of  the  noblest  sym- 
phonies in  our  whole  history.  Samuel  Sewall  was 
a  compound,  a  mixture  of  goodness  and  gossip; 
of  justice  and  utter  triviality,  of  straightforward 
living  and  skilful  economic  diplomacy.  He  was  a 
great  influence,  a  good  influence,  but  a  mixed  in- 
fluence. He  is  best  known  to  you  through  his  con- 
nection with  the  witchcraft  craze.  Here,  however, 
only  thirty-two  people  lost  their  lives  in  that  panic 
and  craze,  whereas  in  Great  Britain  thirty  thou- 
sand died,  in  France  seventy-five  thousand,  in 
Germany  one  hundred  thousand,  and  a  proportion- 
ate number  in  Switzerland,  Sweden,  Italy,  and  Spain. 
I  repeat  that  New  England  had  a  loss  of  only  thirty- 
two  lives;  and  yet  every  scribbler  on  freedom  refers 
to  the  horrible  persecution  and  the  miscarriage  of 
justice  here,  and  says  nothing  about  what  happened 
in  the  rest  of  the  world.  Judge  Sewall,  you  recall, 
after  condemning  these  poor  deluded  souls  to  be 
hanged,  repented  and  wrote  a  confession  of  his 
guilt  and  a  prayer  for  forgiveness,  to  be  read  be- 
fore his  fellow-Christians.  He  stood  with  bowed 
head  in  the  Meetinghouse  while  the  confession  was 


i 


4  hi 


"  : 


:•:-* 


:."   :^   ;,- 


•> 


■*■ 


i   :.-<:.  - 


Htwai 


:  u_ 


[48] 

are  the  trustees  for  all  time  of  that  library.  It  is 
owned  by  the  Old  South  Church,  not  by  the  Boston 
Public  Library;  any  time,  by  the  payment  of  twenty- 
five  hundred  dollars,  the  Prince  Library  can  be  re- 
claimed. The  history  of  New  England  could  not 
be  written  without  that  library;  it  is  precious  be- 
yond words.  It  is  the  best  monument  to  the  far- 
sighted  humanity  of  Thomas  Prince.  He  was  a 
pioneer  among  historians,  and  a  man  with  the  in- 
stincts of  a  scholar.  He  died  at  the  age  of 
seventy-one  after  having  served  this  church  forty 
full  years,  the  holder  of  the  second  record  in  length 
of  service. 

You  recall  the  incident  wrought  into  power  and 
fire  by  Longfellow  when  the  French  fleet  had  set 
out  to  destroy  Boston.  If  you  think  the  incident 
overdrawn,  remember  that  a  President  of  Yale 
University  said  that  the  event  was  one  of  the  pro- 
foundest  causes  for  thanksgiving  all  over  New 
England.  Those  men  believed  that  God  intervened 
to  care  for  a  civil  community,  founded  in  freedom 
and  devoted  to  the  kingdom  of  God.  Shallow  is  the 
faith  that  does  not  include  belief  in  the  Almighty's 
interest  and  defence  of  the  supreme  causes  of  hu- 
manity. Here  is  the  incident,  and  the  prayer  of 
Mr.  Prince  according  to  the  poet: 


C49] 
A  fleet  with  flags  arrayed 

Sailed  from  the  port  of  Brest, 
And  the  Admiral's  ship  displayed 

The  signal:    "Steer  southwest." 
For  this  Admiral  D'Anville 

Had  sworn  by  cross  and  crown 
To  ravage  with  fire  and  steel 

Our  helpless  Boston  Town. 

There  were  rumors  in  the  street, 

In  the  houses  there  was  fear 
Of  the  coming ,  of  the  fleet, 

And  the  danger  hovering  near. 
And  while  from  mouth  to  mouth 

Spread  the  tidings  of  dismay, 
I  stood  in  the  Old  South, 

Saying  humbly:    "Let  us  pray! 

"0  Lord!   we  would  not  advise; 

But  if  in  thy  Providence 
A  tempest  should  arise 

To  drive  the  French  Fleet  hence, 
And  scatter  it  far  and  wide, 

Or  sink  it  in  the  sea, 
We  should  be  satisfied, 

And  thine  the  glory  be." 

This  was  the  prayer  I  made, 
For  my  soul  was  all  on  flame, 

And  even  as  I  prayed 

The  answering  tempest  came; 


[6o.Il 
//  came  with  a  mighty  power, 

Shaking  the  windows  and  walls, 
And  tolling  the  bell  in  the  tower, 

As  it  tolls  at  funerals. 

The  lightning  suddenly 

Unsheathed  its  flaming  sword 
And  I  cried:    "Stand  still,  and  see 

The  salvation  of  the  Lord!" 
The  heavens  were  black  with  cloud, 

The  sea  was  white  with  hail, 
And  evermore  fierce  and  loud 

Blew  the  October  gale. 

The  fleet  it  overtook, 

And  the  broad  sails  in  the  van 
Like  the  tents  of  Cushan  shook, 

Or  the  curtains  of  Midian. 
Down  on  the  reeling  decks 

Crashed  the  overwhelming  seas; 
Ah,  never  were  there  wrecks 

So  pitiful  as  these! 

Like  a  potter's  vessel  broke 

The  great  ships  of  the  line; 
They  were  carried  away  as  a  smoke, 

Or  sank  like  lead  in  the  brine. 
0  Lord!    before  thy  path 

They  vanished  and  ceased  to  be, 
When  thou  didst  walk  in  wrath 

With  thine  horses  through  the  sea! 


[5i] 
III.  The  Church  in  the  Revolution 


w 


E  come  now  to  the  most  dramatic  and  the 
most  famous  part  of  the  history  of  the  Old  South 
Church,  the  part  that  it  played  in  the  American 
Revolution.  As  we  begin  the  thrilling  narrative, 
so  well  known  to  most  of  you,  we  must  remark 
that  at  this  period  the  leadership  passed  from  the 
minister  of  the  church  to  the  laymen  of  the  church 
and  congregation.  Hitherto  it  had  been  otherwise. 
There  was  no  layman  in  the  town  of  Boston  at  all 
equal  in  power  or  in  influence  to  Samuel  Willard 
during  his  twenty-nine  years  of  service  in  this 
church.  Ebenezer  Pemberton,  Joseph  Sewall, 
Thomas  Prince  were  all  genuine  leaders;  Judge 
Sewall  was  a  subordinate  person  in  comparison 
with  the  ministers  of  the  church;  the  period  on 
which  we  are  now  entering  in  the  history  of  our 
church  finds  the  reverse  to  be  the  case. 

Mr.  Cumming,  who  died  before  the  forces  of  the 
Revolution  were  in  full  command,  served  the  church 
only  about  two  years;  he  was  a  man  of  ability  of 
his  own  kind  but  he  left  no  impression  upon  the 
general  community.  Mr.  Blair  and  Mr.  Bacon 
served  the  church  briefly,  Mr.  Blair  for  nearly 
three  and  Mr.  Bacon  a  little  over  four  years;  and 
although  men  of  ability  and  high  character  they 
did  not  read  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  left  no  im- 
pression upon  the  Old  South  Church  or  the  town  of 
Boston.     Mr.  Hunt  served  the  church  from  1771 


[52] 

until  his  death  in  1775;  he  was  greatly  beloved  by 
the  people  and  sincerely  mourned  when  he  died; 
his  ministry  of  high  spirituality  was  often  after- 
ward recalled,  but  he  was  too  frail  in  body  and 
altogether  unfitted  for  commanding  leadership  in 
the  stormy  time  which  had  now  arrived. 

The  laymen  were  the  leaders,  and  chief  of  these 
was  Samuel  Adams.  His  father  and  mother  were 
members  of  the  Old  South  Church.  His  grand- 
father and  grandmother  had  been  members  and 
he  himself  became  a  member  in  1789  and  was  in 
full  communion  with  the  church  for  the  last  four- 
teen years  of  his  life.  He  was  born  in  Boston  in 
1722,  just  one  hundred  years  before  the  birth  of 
General  Grant.  He  was  graduated  from  Harvard 
in  17/io,  at  the  age  of  eighteen.  It  is  sometimes 
said  that  he  began  the  study  of  law  to  please  his 
father  and  that  he  left  it  to  please  his  mother.  He 
entered  one  business  enterprise  after  another  and 
failed  in  them  all.  He  took  to  politics  and  was  at 
once  an  immense  success.  He  was  a  representative 
at  the  General  Court  and  became  Clerk  of  the  House. 
During  his  service  here  his  work  was  of  an  ex- 
traordinary value,  his  correspondence  with  prom- 
inent persons  in  all  parts  of  the  Colony  being 
voluminous  and  of  vital  importance. 

Adams  repudiated  the  idea  advanced  by  Franklin 
and  others  of  a  representation  in  the  British  Parlia- 
ment of  the  American  Colonies.  He  was  the  author 
of  the  idea  of  the  Continental  Congress  and  was  a 


[53] 
representative  in  that  Congress  from  1774  to  1781; 
he  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  He  won  over  many  influential  men 
to  the  American  cause:  John  Hancock,  the  wealthy 
Boston  merchant,  Dr.  Joseph  Warren,  one  of  the 
most  upright  and  influential  men  of  the  time, 
Josiah  Quincy,  and  many  other  valiant  souls  were 
won  to  the  cause  through  the  insight  and  the  in- 
spiring personal  leadership  of  Samuel  Adams. 

Adams  was  not  great  as  a  speaker,  nor  as  a  con- 
structive statesman;  in  calling  out  and  organizing 
the  latent  forces  of  the  revolution  he  was  matchless. 
Later  in  life  he  was  Lieutenant  Governor,  and  still 
later  for  several  years  he  was  Governor  of  the 
Commonwealth.  He  died  at  the  age  of  eighty-one, 
in  i8o3. 

Passing  to  the  church,  let  us  see  what  part  the 
church  played  in  these  tumultuous  years.  In  the 
first  place,  on  June  10,  1768,  an  English  frigate 
arrived  to  enforce  the  new  revenue  laws,  and  seized 
a  vessel  belonging  to  John  Hancock.  The  free  men 
of  Boston  felt  that  it  was  an  outrage  that  a  vessel 
belonging  to  a  citizen  of  Boston  should  be  seized 
by  a  frigate  from  England.  The  selectmen  of  the 
town  called  a  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall;  Faneuil 
Hall  was  not  big  enough  to  hold  the  crowd  and 
the  Old  South  Meetinghouse  was  thrown  open  and 
packed  to  overflowing. 

A  committee  was  chosen,  to  protest  against  the 
outrage  to  Governor  Bernard,  and  to  obtain  from 


[54] 
him  an  honorable  settlement.  The  case  was  settled, 
patched  up,  after  a  while;  the  Governor  was  con- 
cessive and  the  patriots  were  conservative.  That 
was  their  strength.  They  considered  every  step 
that  they  took.  The  settlement  was  fairly  satis- 
factory on  both  sides,  good  enough  for  a  beginning. 

In  1770  the  King  street  massacre  occurred.  For 
seventeen  months  two  regiments  had  been  quartered 
in  the  town  of  Boston,  to  the  disgust  of  the  free 
men.  More  and  more  strained  became  the  relations 
of  the  citizens  and  the  soldiers;  more  frequently 
insulting  words  passed  between  them,  till  one  day 
on  King  street,  the  people  being  especially  aggres- 
sive, the  soldiers  shot  down  six  of  them.  Next  day, 
in  the  afternoon,  the  Old  South  Church  was  opened 
again  and  a  crowd  of  2000  men  gathered,  with 
Samuel  Adams  as  their  leader.  He  was  sent  to  the 
Governor  to  ask  that  these  regiments  be  removed 
from  the  town  and  quartered  in  Castle  William. 
The  Governor  again  was  concessive,  being  anxious 
to  avoid  trouble;  this  time  the  patriots  were  not  so 
conservative.  The  Governor  consented  to  the  re- 
moval of  one  regiment.  Samuel  Adams  went  to  the 
Old  South  Meetinghouse  and  reported  the  Gov- 
ernor's message,  saying  as  he  delivered  the  report, 
"The  removal  of  two  or  none!"  Whereupon  the 
unanimous  vote  was,  "Both  or  none!" 

Mr.  Adams  returned  to  the  Governor  and  re- 
ported the  vote.  The  Governor  surrendered  and 
these   two   regiments   were   sent   to   be   quartered 


[55] 
henceforth  in  Castle  William.  They  were  afterward 
known  in  Parliament  by  the  name  of  "Sam  Adams's 
regiments";  because  wherever  he  wanted  them  to 
go,  they  went.  Thereafter  on  each  successive  anni- 
versary of  the  King  street  massacre  a  public  com- 
memoration was  held  in  the  Old  South  Meeting- 
house and  a  noted  patriotic  speaker  was  chosen  to 
express  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  free  men  of 
Boston. 

In  1772  Dr.  Joseph  Warren  delivered  an  oration 
which  stirred  the  town  to  its  depths,  giving  an  able 
account  in  constitutional  law  of  the  relations  that 
existed  between  the  Colonies  and  Great  Britain 
and  preaching  with  great  eloquence  his  ideas  of 
freedom.  Dr.  Joseph  Warren  appeared  as  an  orator 
three  years  later,  coming  in  at  one  of  the  windows 
of  the  church,  part  of  his  audience  being  composed 
of  the  British  troops  and  part  of  Boston  patriots. 

The  next  series  of  meetings  held  in  the  Old  South 
Meetinghouse  by  the  patriots  was  in  connection 
with  the  famous  Tea  Party.  You  will  remember 
that  the  first  ship,  Dartmouth,  arrived  at  Boston  and 
anchored  below  the  custom  house  November  28, 
1773.  She  was  not  allowed  to  land  the  tea  con- 
signed to  this  port  by  the  East  India  Company, 
because  the  port  was  to  be  taxed  when  the  tea  was 
landed. 

The  meetings  began  in  the  Old  South  Church  on 
this  date,  the  28th  of  November,  and  they  were  con- 
tinued  (and  no  one  complained  of  the  length  of 


[56] 
time  spent  in  the  church)  till  the  16th  of  December, 
the  same  year.    The  Dartmouth  was  joined  by  the 
Eleanor  and  the  Beaver,  and  these  three  vessels, 
anchored  near  Griffin's  Wharf,  awaited  their  fate. 

At  the  meetings  held  in  the  church  three  votes 
were  passed  unanimously:  first,  that  the  tea  be 
sent  back  whence  it  came;  second,  that  it  be  sent 
back  with  the  tax  unpaid;  third,  that  it  be  sent 
back  in  the  vessels  that  brought  it.  The  best  de- 
scription of  this  Tea  Party  extant  is  found  in  Car- 
lyle's  Frederick  the  Great.  Dr.  Manning  in  his  essay 
on  Samuel  Adams  quotes  a  part  of  it ;  I  think  you  will 
like  to  read  the  whole  account:  l 

"The  Boston  Tea  (same  day).  Curious  to  re- 
mark, while  Frederick  is  writing  this  letter  'Thurs- 
day, December  16th,  1773/  what  a  commotion  is 
going  on,  far  over  seas,  at  Boston,  New  England, 
in  the  'Old  South  Meetinghouse,'  there  in  regard 
to  three  English  Tea-Ships  that  are  lying  embargoed 
in  Griffin's  Wharf,  for  above  a  fortnight  past. 
(The  case  is  well  known  and  still  memorable  to 
mankind.) 

"This  Thursday,  accordingly  by  10  in  the  morn- 
ing, in  the  'Old  South  Meetinghouse,'  Boston  is 
assembled  and  country  people  to  the  number  of 
2,000;  —  and  Rotch  never  was  in  such  a  company 
of  human  Friends  before.  They  are  not  uncivil 
to  him  (cautious  people,  heedful  of  the  verge  of  the 
Law) ;  but  they  are  peremptory,  to  the  extent  of  — 
1  Frederick  the  Great,  Book  XXI,  Chapter  V. 


[57] 
Rotch  may  shudder  to  think  what.  '  I  went  to  the 
custom  house  yesterday,'  said  Rotch,  'your  Com- 
mittee of  Ten  can  bear  me  witness;  and  demanded 
clearance  and  leave  to  depart;  but  they  would  not; 
were  forbidden,  they  said! '  'Go  then,  sir;  get  you 
to  the  Governor  himself;  a  clearance,  and  out  of 
harbour  this  day:  hadn't  you  better ?'  Rotch  is 
well  aware  that  he  had;  hastens  off  to  the  Governor 
(who  has  vanished  to  his  country-house,  on  pur- 
pose); Old  South  Meetinghouse  adjourning  until 
3  p.m.,  for  Rotch's  return  with  clearance. 

"  At  3  o'clock  no  Rotch,  nor  at  4,  nor  at  5;  mis- 
cellaneous plangent  intermittent  speech  instead, 
mostly  plangent,  in  tone  sorrowful  rather  than  in- 
dignant:—  at  a  quarter  to  6,  here  at  length  is 
Rotch;  sun  is  long  since  set.  —  Has  Rotch  a  clear- 
ance or  not?  Rotch  reports  at  large,  willing  to  be 
questioned  and  cross-questioned:  'Governor  ab- 
solutely would  not!  My  Christian  friends,  what 
could  I  or  can  I  do?'  There  are  by  this  time  about 
7000  people  in  (about)  Old  South  Meetinghouse, 
very  few  tallow-lights  in  comparison,  almost  no 
lights  for  the  mind,  either,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
answer.  Rotch's  report  done,  the  Chairman  (one 
Adams,  'American  Cato,'  subsequently  so  called) 
dissolves  the  sorrowful  7000  with  these  words: 
'This  meeting  declares  that  it  can  do  nothing  more 
to  save  the  country.'  Will  merely  go  home,  then, 
and  weep.  Hark,  however:  almost  on  the  instant, 
in  front  of  Old  South  Meetinghouse  a  terrific  War 


[58] 
whoop  and  about  fifty   Mohawk  Indians,  —  with 
whom  Adams  seems  to  be  acquainted;   and  speaks 
without  Interpreter:  Aha!  — 

"And,  sure  enough,  before  the  stroke  of  7,  these 
fifty  painted  Mohawks  are  forward,  without  noise, 
to  Griffin's  Wharf  have  put  sentries  all  round  there; 
and,  in  a  great  silence  of  the  neighborhood,  are 
busy,  in  three  gangs,  upon  the  dormant  Tea-ships; 
opening  their  chests,  and  punctually  shaking  them 
out  into  the  sea.  'Listening  from  the  distance,  you 
could  hear  distinctly  the  ripping  open  of  the  chests 
and  no  other  sound.'  About  10  p.m.,  all  was  finished; 
342  chests  of  tea  flung  out  to  infuse  in  the  Atlantic; 
the  fifty  Mohawks  gone  like  a  dream;  and  Boston 
sleeping  more  silently  even  than  usual."  The  old 
South  Meetinghouse  then  enacted  history  of  world- 
wide significance. 

The  next  revolutionary  event  in  which  the  church 
is  connected  is  less  widely  known.  General  Gage, 
as  you  know,  sent  an  expedition  to  Lexington  in 
1775,  April,  to  capture  Samuel  Adams  and  John 
Hancock,  who  were  temporarily  staying  there;  all 
other  offenders  were  to  be  forgiven;  these  two  were 
to  be  executed  for  high  treason.  Of  the  famous 
ride  of  Paul  Revere  we  all  know,  but  the  part  played 
by  a  member  of  the  Old  South  Church,  equally  im- 
portant, is  not  so  well  known. 

There  were  two  messengers  despatched  that 
night  to  alarm  the  countryside  and  especially  to 
warn  those  two  great  leaders  to  withdraw.     Paul 


[59] 
Revere  went  by  sea;  the  sea  course  was  much  shorter 
and  he  got  to  Lexington  first  and  actually  warned  the 
patriots.  William  Dawes,  member  of  the  Old  South 
Church,  was  the  other  rider  and  he  took  the  land 
course,  with  great  difficulty  eluding  the  British 
guard  at  the  Neck;  he  crossed  the  Charles  river  at 
the  Brighton  bridge,  proceeded  through  Cam- 
bridge and  got  to  Lexington  only  a  little  later  than 
Paul  Revere. 

These  two  men  were  riding  together,  having  done 
part  of  their  work,  when  they  came  upon  a  delight- 
ful young  patriot  of  the  time,  Dr.  Prescott,  who  was 
returning  from  a  visit  to  his  sweetheart,  Miss 
Mulliken.  The  three  proceeded  together  till  they 
found  themselves  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  com- 
pany of  British  officers.  Prescott,  who  was  the  best 
mounted  of  the  three,  urged  his  horse  and  cleared 
the  stone  wall  and  escaped.  The  British  officers 
at  once  gave  chase  to  Dawes,  who  spurred  his  steed 
to  its  best  and  rode  right  up  toward  an  empty  farm 
house,  slapping  his  hand  on  his  leathern  breeches 
and  shouting,  "Hello,  boys!  I've  got  two  of  them!" 
Whereupon  the  officers,  suspecting  a  trap,  turned 
their  horses  and  fled!  Dawes  escaped,  losing  only 
his  watch;  even  that  was  found  afterwards.  The 
exploit  of  William  Dawes  is  just  as  memorable, 
just  as  inspiring  as  that  of  Paul  Revere,  but  he  still 
waits  for  a  Longfellow  to  give  lyric  expression  to  the 
glorious  exploit  of  that  evening  and  the  following 
day.     Paul  Revere  was  not  so  lucky  as  his  two 


[6o] 

friends.     He  rode  all  unconsciously  into  a  British 
detachment  and  had  to  surrender. 

In  the  siege  of  Boston,  from  1770  to  1776  there 
is  no  record  of  any  meeting  on  the  part  of  the  Old 
South  Church  anywhere.  The  church  was  without 
ministers,  the  members  were  dispersed.  Prac- 
tically the  church  appeared  to  be  extinct.  The 
Meetinghouse  was  desecrated  in  a  truly  infamous 
way.  It  must  be  added,  however,  that  in  times  : 
war  churches  have  been  taken  not  infrequently  for 
military  uses.  Other  churches  in  the  town  of  Boston 
were  so  used  by  the  British,  they  were  so  taken  and 
used  in  New  York,  but  upon  no  church  did  the 
British  wreak  such  vengeance  as  they  did  upon  the 
Old  South  Meetinghouse.  The  pulpit  was  taken 
down  and  cut  to  pieces:  the  pews  were  taken  out 
and  burned:  the  finest  pew  of  all.  Deacon  Hub- 
bard's pew.  was  taken  and  turned  into  a  hog-pen. 
Hundreds  of  loads  of  dirt  were  carted  into  the 
church  and  spread  upon  the  floor  to  make  the  riding 
safe  and  easy  and  the  fall  without  injury*,  if  the 
rider  happened  to  fall.  One  part  of  the  gallery  was 
spared  for  the  officers  and  their  lady  friends,  and  a 
bar  was  erected,  at  which  liquor  was  sold  to  the 
officers  and  their  friends.  Another  kind  of  bar  was 
shot  across  one  of  the  doors  and  the  soldiers  in 
their  exercises  cleared  the  bar.  or  tried  to.  and 
landed  inside  the  church.  The  regiment  that  thus 
desecrated  our  former  Meetinghouse  was  the  17th 
Light    Horse    Dragoons.      This    was    an    appalling 


[6r] 

sight  to  the  good  people  of  Boston;  the  soldiers 
carried  their  sacrilege  further.  The  parsonage,  the 
house  in  which  John  Winthrop  had  lived  and  died, 
which  Samuel  Willard,  Ebenezer  Pemberton  and 
Dr.  Joseph  Sewall  had  occupied,  was  destroyed. 
The  residence  of  Samuel  Adams  was  rendered  un- 
inhabitable. 

Here  let  me  record  a  few  episodes.  The  first 
goes  back  to  17^4,  when  Colonel  Pepperrell,  nephew 
by  marriage  of  Joseph  Sewall,  and  Captain  Gridley 
of  the  Old  South  Church,  headed  an  expedition 
against  the  French  in  Cape  Breton.  Under  Colonel 
Pepperrell  the  great  fortress  of  Louisburg  was  taken. 
There  are  members  of  this  church  and  congrega- 
tion today  who  are  descendants  of  those  who  went 
and  took  part  in  that  great  expedition.  This  episode 
was  significant  in  the  training  which  it  gave  to 
Gridley,  who  afterward,  as  a  first-class  engineer, 
built  the  forts  on  Lake  George,  who  also  rendered 
admirable  service  at  Bunker  Hill  and  at  the  siege 
of  Boston. 

The  second  episode  is  of  a  very  different  character 
and  concerns  one  of  the  most  pathetic  incidents  in 
our  entire  history.  In  1761  a  little  slave  girl  of 
seven,  who  was  kidnapped  from  Africa  and  brought 
hither,  was  offered,  among  other  slaves,  for  sale 
in  the  town.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Wheatley  went 
to  look  the  slaves  over,  as  you  might  a  set  of  Boston 
bull  terriers,  to  see  if  there  happened  to  be  any  in 
the  number  suitable  for  their  service.    Mrs.  Wheat- 


[6a] 

ley  was  greatly  moved  by  this  little  African  slave 
girl  of  seven  years  of  age,  and  took  her  home  in  her 
carriage.  Sensitive,  obedient,  clinging,  loving  and 
lovable,  this  child  gained  the  confidence  of  the 
entire  family.  One  of  the  Wheatley  daughters 
taught  her  to  read  and  write.  In  a  few  months  she 
made  amazing  progress.  She  wrote  the  most  beau- 
tiful of  all  the  eulogies  that  were  written  of  Dr. 
Joseph  Sewall;  of  all  the  testimonials  to  his  work, 
that  of  Phyllis  Wheatley  was  thought  to  be  the 
best.  She  became  a  member  of  the  Old  South 
Church  in  1771,  and  when  Washington  took  com- 
mand of  the  American  forces,  under  the  old  elm  at 
Cambridge,  Phyllis  Wheatley  wrote  a  poem  in  his 
honor  and  sent  him  a  note.  Here  is  General  Wash- 
ington's acknowledgment;  what  a  superb  gentle- 
man he  was ! 

4 *  Miss  Phyllis:  Your  favor  of  the  26th  of  October 
did  not  reach  my  hands  till  the  middle  of  December. 
Time  enough,  you  will  say,  to  have  given  an  answer 
ere  this.  Granted.  But  a  variety  of  important 
occurrences,  continually  interposing  to  distract  the 
mind  and  withdraw  the  attention,  I  hope  will 
apologize  for  the  delay,  and  plead  my  excuse  for  the 
seeming,  but  not  real,  neglect.  I  thank  you  most 
sincerely  for  your  polite  notice  of  me  in  the  elegant 
lines  you  enclosed:  and  however  undeserving  I 
may  be  of  such  encomium  and  panegyric,  the  style 
and  manner  exhibit  a  striking  proof  of  your  poeti- 
cal talents;   in  honor  of  which,  as  a  tribute  justly 


[63] 
due  to  you,  I  would  have  published  the  poem  had 
I  not  been  apprehensive  that,  while  I  only  meant 
to  give  the  world  this  new  instance  of  your  genius, 
I  might  have  incurred  the  imputation  of  vanity. 
This,  and  nothing  else,  determined  me  not  to  give 
it  a  place  in  the  public  prints. 

"If  you  should  ever  come  to  Cambridge,  or  near 
headquarters,  I  shall  be  happy  to  see  a  person  so 
favored  by  the  Muses,  to  whom  nature  has  been  so 
liberal  and  beneficent  in  her  dispensations.  I  am, 
with  great  respect,  your  obedient,  humble  servant, 
Geo.  Washington.' ' 

Here  is  a  sample  of  Phyllis  Wheatley's  muse: 

9Twas  mercy  brought  me  from  my  pagan  land, 
Taught  my  benighted  soul  to  understand 
That  there's  a  God  —  that  there's  a  Saviour  too: 
Once  I  redemption  neither  sought  nor  knew. 
Some  view  our  sable  race  with  scornful  eye  — 
"Their  color  is  a  diabolic  dye" 
Remember,  Christians,  Negroes  black  as  Cain 
May  be  refined,  and  join  tK  angelic  train. 

I  have  been  deeply  interested  with  the  discovery 
that  we  have  so  many  descendants  in  this  church 
today  of  those  who  took  part  in  the  Revolutionary 
war.  Time  would  fail  me  to  mention  all.  Let  me 
take  the  deacons  of  the  church  as  a  parable,  with- 
holding all  names.  The  great  grandfather  of  one 
deacon,  and  the  grandfather  of  the  present  treas- 
urer of  the  Old  South  Society,  fought  in  that  war 


[64] 

and  obtained  a  bounty  coat  for  meritorious  service; 
another  deacon  is  connected  by  four  lines  of  an- 
cestry with  the  fighting,  and  strange  enough  to 
say  all  four  lines  had  representatives  in  the  battle 
of  Ticonderoga;  two  spent  the  winter  with  Wash- 
ington in  Valley  Forge  and  partook  of  the  bounties 
that  were  then  so  abundant !  I  have  been  interested 
to  discover  it  was  on  the  maternal  side  that  the 
fighting  representatives  were  mostly  found.  There 
is  only  one  officer  of  the  church  who  has  not  been 
able  to  find  any  of  his  ancestors  who  fought  in  the 
Revolution;  he  coupled  this  confession  with  the 
remark  that  he  was  very  glad  because  they  would 
have  been  obliged  to  fight  against  the  ancestors  of 
his  minister,  who  were  on  the  wrong  side ! 

The  blood  of  the  Revolution  is  in  the  veins  of  the 
Old  South  Church  today.  It  is  a  militant  church,  full 
of  the  fire  and  spirit  of '  76.  To  know  this  I  hope  is  an 
inspiration  to  good  citizenship  and  good  Christianity. 

Here  a  remark  is  in  order  respecting  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Old  South  Meetinghouse.  For  five 
years,  from  1777  to  1782,  the  Old  South  congrega- 
tion met  in  King's  Chapel.  Let  that  always  be 
remembered.  King's  Chapel  took  the  Old  South 
people  in,  made  room  for  them  when  they  had  no 
place  in  which  to  gather  and  preserve  their  ecclesi- 
astical organization.  Five  years  is  a  long  time  for 
one  church  to  entertain  another  church  as  its  guest. 
King's  Chapel  did  this  and  offered  to  continue  it 
longer  if  necessary. 


[65] 

After  the  war  Boston  was  poor;  the  leading  men 
had  lost  their  wealth,  their  property  had  depre- 
ciated, they  were  in  great  straits;  the  repair  of  the 
Meetinghouse  was  a  great  burden,  but  it  was  done, 
and  done  by  the  people  of  the  church.  They  ap- 
pealed to  the  town,  that  the  Old  South  Meeting- 
house had  so  magnificently  served,  but  nobody  in 
the  town  was  able  to  do  anything  toward  repairing 
the  desecrated  church.  The  will  was  not  wanting, 
but  the  power  was  wanting;  every  one  had  enough 
to  do  to  take  care  of  his  own  special  obligations. 

The  Meetinghouse  was  at   length  repaired  and 
on  the  Lord's  day,  March  2,  1783,  the  church  re- 
turned   to    its    old    ecclesiastical   home,    repeating 
doubtless  to  itself,    "The  ransomed  of  the  Lord 
shall  return  and  come  to  Zion,   with  songs  and 
everlasting  joy  upon  their  heads;   they  shall  obtain 
joy  and  gladness,  and  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee 
away."    Here  follows  the  anthem  which  was  sung 
that  day;    the  music  was  composed  by  William 
Selby,  then  organist  at  King's  Chapel.     How  the 
anthem  must  have  rolled  throughout  the  renovated 
church,  and  still  more  what  music  it  must  have  made 
in  the  happy  hearts  and  greatened  minds  of  those 
men  and  women  who  had  survived  seven  years  of 
Revolutionary  war. 
Behold,  God  is  my  salvation, 
I  will  trust  and  not  be  afraid; 
For  the  Lord  Jehovah  is  my  strength  and  song, 
He  also  is  become  my  salvation; 


[66] 

He  hath  raised  up  the  tabernacle  of  David  that  is 

fallen; 
He  hath  closed  up  the  breaches  thereof, 
He  hath  raised  up  the  ruins, 
He  hath  built  it  as  in  the  days  of  old 
And  caused  his  people  to  rejoice  therein. 
Praise  the  Lord,  call  upon  his  name, 
Declare  his  doings  among  the  nations, 
Make  mention  that  his  name  is  exalted, 
Sing  unto  the  Lord  for  he  hath  done  excellent  things; 
This  is  known  in  all  the  earth. 
Cry  out  and  shout,  thou  inhabitant  of  Zion, 
For  great  is  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  in  the  midst  of  thee. 
Hallelujah!  for  the  Lord  Omnipotent  reigneth! 


IV.  The  Church  and  the  Civil  War 


w. 


E  are  still  near  the  period  of  the  Civil  War, 
and  the  imagination  of  every  patriotic  man  is 
touched  by  a  thousand  appeals.  Decoration  Day, 
with  its  thinned  ranks  of  worn  veterans,  appeals 
to  thought  and  feeling  vividly  and  deeply.  In 
every  graveyard,  in  every  hamlet  throughout  New 
England,  throughout  the  whole  loyal  North,  one 
will  find  the  Stars  and  Stripes  planted  by  a  solitary, 
humble  grave,  here,  there  and  yonder.  Every 
village  has  it  soldiers'  monument,  telling  what  the 
struggle  meant,  not  only  to  the  great  cities,  but 
to  every  centre  of  population  in  the  North.  One 
of  the  most  affecting  of  these  symbols  is  the  corridor 


[67] 
of  Memorial  Hall,  Cambridge.    Pass  through  that 
corridor  and  read  the  names  on  those  white  tablets 
and  realize  what  the  Civil  War  meant  in  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  best  and  bravest  of  that  generation. 

This  mode  of  approach  deepens  feeling,  quickens 
thought  and  gives  a  more  comprehensive  sense  of 
that  burden  of  strife,  alternate  hope  and  despair 
which  lay  for  four  years  upon  the  soul  of  a  great 
people.  The  Civil  War  I  regard  as  one  of  the  great- 
est wars  in  all  history.  It  was  fought  on  moral 
grounds  and  for  moral  causes,  and  its  triumph  is 
an  immense  help  to  faith  in  the  moral  govern- 
ment of  the  world.  Carlyle  used  to  say  that 
the  French  Revolution  saved  him  from  atheism  to 
faith  in  a  moral  Deity,  because  there  and  then  a 
century  of  lust  and  shame,  robbery  and  contempt, 
lying  and  cruelty,  burned  itself  out  under  the 
government  of  the  just  God. 

The  period  to  which  we  come  in  the  history  of  our 
church  is  a  period  of  division  and  searching  of 
heart.  Boston  was  divided  between  proslavery  and 
antislavery.  Phillips  Brooks  once  told  me  that  in 
the  late  forties,  when  the  waves  of  opinion  were 
running  wild  and  high  as  if  before  hurricanes,  he 
and  his  playmates  used  to  crowd  into  the  Boston 
Theatre  in  order  to  hiss  the  abolitionists.  He  said, 
"We  did  not  know  anything  about  the  reason  of  our 
hissing,  but  enjoyed  it.  The  police  would  appre- 
hend us  and  box  our  ears  and  throw  us  into  the 
street;   we  waited  for  another  chance  to  go  in  with 


[68] 

a  fresh  crowd  and  hiss  the  abolitionists  again !" 
Here  is  a  sign  of  the  tumult  and  confusion  of 
opinion. 

This  condition  of  things  in  the  city  reflected 
itself  in  the  Old  South  congregation;  proslavery 
and  antislavery  sat  side  by  side;  one  man  praising 
his  minister  when  there  was  mention  made  of  a 
black  man  in  the  sermon,  and  another  saying, 
"Too  much  nigger  in  that  discourse."  This  divi- 
sion of  opinion  in  the  city  and  in  the  church  was 
reflected  in  the  ministry. 

Dr.  Blagden  was  from  the  South,  he  was  pro- 
slavery;  the  institution  seemed  to  him  of  divine 
origin,  the  Bible  was  in  its  favor.  It  was  good  for 
the  black  man  to  be  in  bondage  and  good  for  the 
white  man  to  have  him  there.  The  institution  of 
slavery  was  good!  His  junior  colleague,  Dr.  Man- 
ning, coming  from  New  England,  with  a  richer 
humanity,  with  a  sense  of  the  cruelty  of  barter  and 
exchange  in  flesh  and  blood  and  the  reduction  of 
human  life  to  the  level  of  a  chattel,  was  an  anti- 
slavery  man  in  every  fibre  of  his  being.  These  two 
men  differed  on  the  temperance  question.  Dr. 
Blagden  said,  "I  am  in  favor  of  temperance,  but 
what  is  temperance?  It  is  the  moderate  or  rational 
use  of  alcohol."  "Every  creature  of  God  is  good," 
was  one  of  his  favorite  texts,  and  "Take  a  little 
wine  for  thy  stomach's  sake  and  thine  infirmities." 
His  colleague,  looking  upon  the  havoc  wrought 
by  the  use  of  alcohol,  especially  among  the  poor, 


[69] 
could  think  of  temperance  only  under  the  form  of 
total  abstinence. 

Here  then  were  the  divisions.  It  was  as  if  an 
earthquake  had  gone  before  them,  and  men  were 
walking  and  jumping  across  yawning  chasms.  They 
were  high-minded  men,  and  no  two  men  then  alive 
could  have  been  brought  together  who  were  nobler 
in  their  purpose  and  spirit  than  Dr.  Blagden  and 
Dr.  Maiining.  It  is  easy  enough  to  be  united  when 
there  are  no  great  issues  burning  in  the  hearts  of 
of  the  people,  and  setting  children  against  their 
parents  and  parents  against  their  children.  It 
takes  men  of  a  different  stamp  to  work  together 
with  high  composure  when  the  community  and  the 
church  and  their  own  minds  are  rent  with  vast 
antagonisms! 

Fort  Sumter  was  fired  upon  and  compelled  to 
surrender  on  the  12th  of  April,  1861.  What  took 
place?  The  two  ministers  stood  on  one  platform, 
as  Dr.  Blagden  said,  absolutely  one.  The  whole 
church  stood  together  as  one;  all  Boston  was  one 
man  when  the  Flag  had  been  fired  upon.  The  first 
great  scene  in  the  Old  South  Church  at  this  period 
was  on  the  first  of  May,  1861,  nineteen  days  after 
the  government  fort  in  the  harbor  of  South  Caro- 
lina had  been  taken  by  Confederate  forces.  As  in 
Revolutionary  days,  so  now,  the  patriots  of  Boston 
turned  toward  the  Old  South  Meetinghouse.  The 
standing  committee  erected  a  platform  under  the 
tower  for  the  use  of  speakers  and  a  vast  concourse 


of  people  surrounded  the  church.  The  chairman 
of  the  standing  committee,  Mr.  George  Homer, 
presided.  The  United  States  flag  was  flung  to  the 
breeze  from  the  tower  of  the  church,  amid  the  pro- 
foundest  enthusiasm  and  emotion.  Here  are  a 
few  sentences  from  the  remarks  of  Mr.  Homer; 
his  words  show  the  feeling  of  the  laymen  of  the  day. 

"In  the  dark  and  stormy  times  of  our  Revolu- 
tionary history,' '  Mr.  Homer  said,  "it  was  within 
the  consecrated  walls  of  the  Old  South  Church  that 
our  patriotic  fathers  were  accustomed  to  assemble 
and  take  counsel  together.  Here  Warren  and  Han- 
cock and  the  Adamses  and  their  associates  met  and 
poured  out  their  protest  against  British  oppression; 
here  within  a  few  feet  of  where  we  stand  Benjamin 
Franklin  was  born.  Let  us  then,  in  view  of  the 
memories  of  the  past  and  in  hope  and  faith  of  the 
future  and  above  all  relying  on  the  favour  of  heaven, 
reverently  throw  our  national  flag  to  the  breeze  and 
invoke  upon  it  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God." 
Imagine  the  scene!  Mr.  Homer  then  called  upon 
the  assembly  to  join  with  Dr.  Blagden  in  prayer. 
I  quote  a  few  sentences  from  that  prayer: 

"Bless  thy  servant,  the  President  of  our  Union, 
and  those  immediately  connected  with  him  in  the 
administration  of  our  government.  Be  with  them 
in  those  solemn  moments,  when  the  lives  and  the 
happiness  of  multitudes  may  hang  on  their  deci- 
sions. Render  them  firm  and  energetic  in  action. 
.  .  .  Oh,  Lord,  if  this  question  must  be  settled  by 


[71] 
the  shedding  of  blood,  go  with  our  hosts  in  action. 
Yet,  if  it  be  thy  will,  so  guide  the  minds  of  our 
erring  countrymen,  that  this  issue  may  be  avoided. 
But  if  thou  hast  otherwise  determined,  grant  that 
we,  who  sustain  the  government  and  the  laws  of  the 
country,  may  be  united,  and  be  blessed,  and  be 
made  successful  by  thee." 

Then  came  an  address  by  Dr.  Manning,  the 
junior  minister  of  the  church.  I  quote  a  few  sen- 
tences from  this  truly  eloquent  and  thrilling  ad- 
dress. The  speaker  was  young,  and  youth  is  always 
prophetic;  the  new  generation  was  speaking  through 
him  as  it  could  not  in  the  older  man. 

"God's  temple  welcomes  the  star-spangled  ban- 
ner today,  —  for  that  banner  has  ceased  to  be  the 
sign  of  corrupt  fellowship,  or  of  subserviency  to 
wrong,  and  has  become  the  symbol  of  justice  and 
loyalty  to  human  rights.  There  floats  the  ensign 
of  the  free.  We  hail  it  with  patriotic  shouts,  for  it 
signals  to  us  divine  order  and  the  brotherhood  of 
men.  Those  stripes  of  crimson  and  pearl,  and  that 
constellation  on  its  field  of  blue,  are  thrilling  twenty 
millions  of  hearts  while  I  speak.  From  the  valleys 
of  the  Pine-tree  State,  from  the  homes  of  Stark  and 
Allen,  Putnam  and  Greene,  from  the  mighty  em- 
pires of  the  Middle  States,  from  boundless  prairie 
and  forest  and  mine  they  issue  forth  together  with 
you  of  this  free  commonwealth,  an  innumerable  and 
invincible  host  to  bear  our  national  emblem  whither 
duty  shall  lead  the  way.    All  that  beautifies  and 


blesses  American  society  asks  to  sit  in  the  shadow 
of  the  dear  old  flag;  only  that  which  is  hateful  and 
destructive  would  drag  it  from  the  sky  and  rend 
and  trample  it." 

The  apostrophe  to  the  flag  follows: 

"We  welcome  thee  today  to  thy  natal  spot,  to 
the  Puritan  Church  of  which  thou  wert  born.  Flag 
of  the  free,  float  on  forever  in  majesty  and  might, 
thou  glorious  ensign,  symbol  of  liberty,  guardian  of 
order  and  law  and  a  nation's  pride,  thou  joy-speak- 
ing herald  to  the  oppressed  of  all  lands!  Within 
thy  folds  may  no  crime  or  dishonor  lurk;  palsied 
be  the  tongue  that  would  defame  thee  and  withered 
the  hand  that  would  tear  thee  from  that  lofty 
height.  God  go  with  thee  in  the  day  of  battle  and 
victory;  make  thy  standard  her  abiding  place." 

Dr.  Manning's  remarks  were  frequently  inter- 
rupted by  hearty  applause  and  nine  cheers  were 
given  for  the  speaker  when  he  had  concluded.  Dr. 
Blagden  rose  and  declared  his  stand,  with  absolute 
candor  and  impressive  power: 

"We  are  here  as  one  man  today;  what  is  more, 
we  are  united  in  eternal  truth.  For  we  meet  to 
sustain  just  government.  The  powers  that  be  are 
ordained  of  God.  The  magistrate  beareth  not  the 
sword  in  vain.  This  truth  is  mighty  and  will  pre- 
vail. The  flag  we  have  raised  is  an  emblem  of  it 
and  of  a  free  government  from  which  men  cannot 
secede  but  by  rebellion,  and  where  is  the  foe  but 
falls  before  us  with  freedom's  soil  beneath  our  feet 


u 


C?3] 
and  freedom's  banner  streaming  o'er  us!"     Nine 
cheers  were  given  for  Dr.  Blagden. 

The  next  scene  of  interest  in  the  Old  South  Meet- 
inghouse in  this  period  was  the  turning  of  the 
church  into  a  recruiting  depot.  During  1862  ca- 
lamity after  calamity  came  to  the  Union  arms;  for 
the  first  time  the  magnitude  of  the  struggle  began 
to  get  into  the  minds  and  imaginations  of  the  North. 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  called  for  3oo,ooo  men  to 
fight  three  years;  he  had  issued  another  call  for 
3oo,ooo  men  to  enlist  for  nine  months;  to  further 
this  second  movement  the  Standing  Committee 
threw  open  the  Old  South  Meetinghouse.  Bands 
played,  speeches  were  made,  prayers  were  offered, 
and  in  the  yard  of  the  Old  South  Meetinghouse 
the  43d  Massachusetts  regiment  was  largely  re- 
cruited. This  regiment  requested  the  Rev.  J.  M. 
Manning  to  go  with  them  to  the  front  as  chaplain. 
Permission  was  given  by  the  church  and  the  society 
for  him  to  go.  He  received  his  commission  from 
Governor  Andrew,  and  leaving  a  wife  and  four 
young  children  behind,  in  his  thirty-eighth  year, 
went  out  with  his  men  to  the  front. 

About  this  time  others  went  from  the  church.  I 
have  not  been  able  to  find  a  full  list.  There  must 
have  been  more  than  I  can  name.  Edward  C. 
Johnson,  treasurer  of  the  Old  South  Society,  went 
as  first  lieutenant  of  the  44th  Massachusetts,  pro- 
moted to  adjutant  in  the  following  May;  George 
Blagden,    oldest   son   of  the   senior   minister   and 


C?43 

Edward  Bladgen,  another  son,  served  in  the  45th; 
Thomas  Blagden  went  into  the  Navy  —  three  of 
the  senior  minister's  sons  entered  the  great  struggle. 
Joseph  Henry  Thayer,  an  Old  South  boy,  left  his 
parish  in  Salem,  and  went  as  a  chaplain  to  the 
front.  Later  members  who  went  to  the  front  were 
William  E.  Murdock,  serving  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end  of  the  great  struggle;  Alpheus  H.  Hardy, 
first  lieutenant  in  the  45th;  Albert  H.  Spencer, 
and  Colonel  Bradley,  one  of  the  youngest  men  to 
enter  the  Army.  He  entered  at  the  age  of  thirteen, 
served  through  to  the  end,  and  when  the  war  was 
over  he  was  only  about  seventeen  years  of  age. 

When  the  43d  regiment  was  recruited,  the  junior 
minister  of  the  church  preached  a  sermon  to  the 
officers  of  the  regiment.  The  church  was  crowded, 
as  usual,  and  certain  words  to  those  who  stayed  at 
home  are  I  think  particularly  impressive  now. 

"Is  it  too  much,"  he  says,  "for  me  to  ask  that 
the  interest  of  this  religious  society  may  follow  the 
regiment  with  which  I  go,  that  I  may  be  able  ever, 
should  they  be  in  need,  to  point  out  to  them  the 
substantial  tokens  of  your  affection  and  that  the 
moral  and  religious  counsel  which  I  shall  endeavor 
to  give  may  be  reinforced  by  an  argument  without 
which  words  are  of  little  avail.  Though  few  or 
none  of  them  may  be  without  ample  resources  of 
their  own  today,  we  cannot  tell  to  what  suffering 
they  may  be  reduced  by  the  chances  of  war,  and  I 
here  commend  unto  you  and  pray  you  to  remember 


[?5] 
the  sacredness  of  your  obligation  as  to  the  defenders 
of  your  firesides,  and  ask  you  not  only  to  carry 
them  daily  in  the  arms  of  your  faith,  but  to  follow 
them  with  all  those  other  attentions  which  shall 
help  to  preserve  and  ennoble  their  manhood." 

You  are  aware  that  Dr.  Manning  contracted  a 
fever  in  the  service  of  his  regiment  and  of  his  coun- 
try. He  returned  and  was  long  a  sufferer;  so  low 
did  he  sink  that  his  death  was  reported  in  the  papers. 
Slowly  he  came  back  to  life  and  vigor  and  for  many 
years  thereafter  served  this  church,  but  always 
with  the  germs  of  disease  working  in  his  body.  Dr. 
Manning  died  from  the  effects  of  the  War  as  surely 
as  if  a  bullet  had  pierced  his  heart  on  the  field. 
His  death  took  place  November  29,  1882. 

There  are  many  tender  thoughts  connected  with 
that  time.  A  severe  engagement  had  been  fought 
in  which  the  44th  regiment  had  borne  its  part,  and 
the  45th;  at  the  close  of  the  day,  in  the  dark,  the 
chaplain  makes  his  way  over  long  distances  and 
rough  ways  to  inquire  if  the  boys  of  his  parish  are 
among  the  living  or  among  the  dead.  The  sig- 
nificance of  this  story  is  here:  these  young  men 
and  their  young  minister  took  the  church  and  put 
it  in  the  heart  of  the  great  struggle;  the  church 
shed  its  blood  with  the  rest  of  the  country. 

The  next  scene  is  one  of  transcendent  interest. 
All  day  on  Sunday,  from  early  morning  to  late  at 
night,  on  the  9th  of  April,  the  news  had  been  pour- 
ing in,  and  bulletins  were  posted  on  the  Merchant's 


[76] 

Exchange  building  that  General  Lee  had  surren- 
dered to  General  Grant,  and  that  the  war  was  over. 
You  can  imagine  the  crowds  that  stood  in  front  of 
those  bulletins;  you  can  imagine  the  shouts  of  joy 
and  the  doxologies  they  sung,  the  frantic  expres- 
sions of  emotion  as  they  realized  that  the  war  was 
over,  that  the  country  was  once  more  united. 

On  the  following  day  the  citizens  of  Boston  asked 
for  the  Old  South  Meetinghouse  as  a  place  of 
thanksgiving.  The  crowd  filled  the  building  to  its 
utmost  capacity  and  surged  round  it,  a  sea  of  joy. 
Prayers  were  offered,  speeches  made  and  psalms 
sung;  the  church  again  was  the  mouthpiece  and 
the  symbol  of  the  joy  of  the  city  and  of  the  nation. 

One  week  later  the  terrible  reverse  came.  Over 
the  wires  on  Saturday  the  dreadful  message  ran 
that  President  Lincoln  had  died  that  morning.  On 
Sunday,  April  16,  with  the  pulpit  draped  in  black, 
to  an  awe-stricken  and  broken-hearted  church  and 
congregation,  the  junior  minister  preached  his  ser- 
mon on  the  death  of  the  great  leader.  Curiously 
enough  I  came  into  possession  of  a  book  bearing  on 
this  Sunday  long  before  I  knew  anything  about  the 
Old  South  Church,  a  book  in  which  are  gathered  the 
sermons  of  all  the  prominent  preachers  of  that  date. 
Here  are  the  names  of  the  men  who  preached  in 
Boston  on  that  memorable  and  tremendous  Sunday: 

Dr.  Kirk,  Dr.  Bartol,  Dr.  Manning,  Dr.  Todd, 
Dr.  Clarke,  G.  H.  Hepworth,  W.  R.  Nicholson,  Mr. 
Hague,  Dr.  Webb,  Dr.  Neal,  Rev.  Henry  Wilder 


[77] 
Foote  of  King's  Chapel,  F.  D.  Huntington,  W.  H. 
Cudworth,  C.  Robbins,  W.  S.  Studley,  R.  Ellis, 
S.  K.  Lothrop,  Edward  Everett  Hale,  A.  A.  Miner, 
James  Reed,  George  Putnam,  G.  L.  Chaney,  A.  L. 
Stone,  J.  D.  Fulton;  only  one  surviving,  Rev.  James 
Reed,  the  venerable  and  beloved  Swedenborgian 
minister. 

That  day  of  tumult,  of  heart-searching,  of  tragic 
grief,  crowded  all  the  churches;  all  the  ministers 
spoke  on  one  thing,  all  cried  out  to  God  for  faith 
and  hope.  What  a  day!  Dr.  Manning's  text  and 
the  opening  words  of  his  sermon  follow: 

"And  the  Lord  said  unto  him,  This  is  the  land 
which  I  sware  unto  Abraham,  unto  Isaac,  and  unto 
Jacob,  saying,  I  will  give  it  unto  thy  seed:  I  have 
caused  thee  to  see  it  with  thine  eyes,  but  thou  shalt 
not  go  over  thither.  So  Moses,  the  servant  of  the 
Lord,  died  there  in  the  land  of  Moab,  according  to 
the  word  of  the  Lord." 

"'According  to  the  word  of  the  Lord.'  Sweet 
announcement  to  a  broken-hearted  nation,  today! 
'Abraham  Lincoln  died  this  morning,  twenty-two 
minutes  after  seven  o'clock.'  That  was  the  message 
which  the  wires,  heavy  laden  with  their  tidings, 
sobbed  forth  yesterday  in  all  our  pleasant  places. 
And  we  awoke  from  our  troubled  sleep  this  morn- 
ing, and  lo!  it  was  not  a  dream.  'According  to  the 
word  of  the  Lord.'  'Even  so,  Father,  for  so  it 
seemed  good  in  thy  sight.'  We  look  above  all 
human  agency.     We  recognize  the  will  that  never 


[78] 
errs,  nor  falters,  and  that  worketh  all  things,  in 
heaven  and  on  earth  after  his  own  perfect  counsel. 

"'So  Moses,  the  servant  of  the  Lord,  died  there.' 
He  had  brought  us  through  the  'great  and  terrible 
wilderness,'  unto  the  borders  of  our  goodly  herit- 
age; but  was  himself  forbidden  to  enter.  How  in- 
complete, how  complete  the  dear  life  that  has  passed 
on!" 

As  I  have  read  the  records  of  this  time,  I  must 
confess  that  I  have  been  deeply  moved.  Every 
word,  every  utterance,  every  token  of  life  is  charged 
with  profoundest  feeling.  The  great  heart  of  the 
North  was  stirred,  stirred  morally,  stirred  religiously 
and  moved  toward  God  with  unwonted  power: 
Bow  down,  dear  Land,  for  thou  hast  found  release! 

Thy  God,  in  these  distempered  days, 

Hath  taught  thee  the  sure  wisdom  of  His  ways, 
And  through  thine  enemies  hath  wrought  thy  peace! 

Bow  down  in  prayer  and  praise! 
No  poorest  in  thy  borders  but  may  now 
Lift  to  the  juster  skies  a  man's  enfranchised  brow. 
0  Beautiful!  my  Country!  ours  once  more! 
Smoothing  thy  gold  of  war-dishevelled  hair 
O'er  such  sweet  brows  as  never  other  wore, 

And  letting  thy  set  lips, 

Freed  from  wrath's  pale  eclipse, 
The  rosy  edges  of  their  smile  lay  bare, 
What  words  divine  of  lover  or  of  poet 
Could  tell  our  love  and  make  thee  know  it, 
Among  the  Nations   bright  beyond  compare? 


[79] 
What  were  our  lives  without  thee? 
What  all  our  lives  to  save  thee? 
We  reck  not  what  we  gave  thee; 
We  will  not  dare  to  doubt  thee, 
But  ask  whatever  else,  and  we  will  dare! 


V.    Later  History 


i 


N  the  late  sixties  of  the  last  century  it  became 
clear  to  many  among  the  leaders  of  the  Old  South 
Church  that  the  Meetinghouse  on  Milk  and  Wash- 
ington streets  could  no  longer  adequately  serve 
the  needs  of  a  living,  growing  spiritual  society. 
Unanimity,  however,  did  not  exist  either  among 
the  members  of  the  church  or  of  the  corporation. 
There  were  remonstrants  against  the  attempt  to 
move,  and  to  erect  another  house  of  worship.  These 
remonstrants  were  of  three  classes.  There  were  the 
members  of  the  church  and  the  society  who  were 
deeply  attached  to  the  venerable  and  famous  Meet- 
inghouse; in  this  they  were  fully  justified.  These 
persons  loved  this  building  more  than  the  church, 
the  fellowship  of  like-minded  men  and  women  in 
the  service  of  the  community;  in  this  they  were 
not  justified.  The  majority  loved  the  Meeting- 
house no  less  sincerely  than  the  minority,  but  they 
loved  the  church  more  than  they  loved  the  building. 

A  second  class  of  remonstrants  consisted  of  the 
ministers  of  Boston,  —  a  group  of  them  would  per- 
haps be  a  more  accurate  description.     These  men 


[8o] 

were  friendly  to  the  minority  of  the  Old  South 
people,  unfriendly  to  the  majority.  They  made  a 
good  deal  of  trouble  for  the  majority  leaders,  but 
they  did  not  count  for  much  in  the  trial  of 
strength. 

The  third  remonstrant  was  formidable,  the  public 
opinion  against  the  right  to  move,  created  by  a 
considerable  number  of  prominent  and  influential 
citizens.  To  them  the  Meetinghouse  was  a  monu- 
mental building;  here  they  were  clearly  in  the 
right.  To  them  the  church  as  a  spiritual  fellow- 
ship in  the  service  of  the  city  counted  for  little; 
here  they  were  mistaken. 

The  case  was  carried  before  the  Legislature;  it 
was  heard  before  a  single  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  later  before  the  full  bench.  In  every 
trial  of  justice  the  Old  South  Society  won;  the  liti- 
gation was  long  and  costly,  but  the  triumph  for  the 
society  was  complete. 

Dr.  Manning,  sole  minister  of  the  church  from 
1872,  when  Dr.  Blagden  resigned,  till  1882,  was 
pained  by  the  division  of  opinion  in  the  society; 
he  was  pained  by  the  absence  of  sympathy  with 
the  purpose  of  the  church  on  the  part  of  many  of 
his  brother  ministers;  beyond  all  he  was  pained  by 
the  alienation  from  his  ministry  of  a  large  body  of 
his  fellow-citizens  who  had  admired  and  supported 
him  in  his  early  ministry.  He  bore  all  this  bravely, 
and  before  he  died  he  was  made  supremely  happy 
by  seeing  the  church  rescued  from  imminent  death, 


[8i] 
refounded,  and  in  sure  possession  of  an  indefinitely 
extended  future  of  influence. 

There  was  one  layman  who  appeared  absolutely 
indispensable  to  the  life  of  the  church  in  this  crisis, 
Samuel  Johnson,  Chairman  of  the  Standing  Com- 
mittee. Other  notable  laymen  stood  round  him. 
Avery  Plumer,  fearless  fighter  for  his  convictions; 
Moses  Merrill,  wise,  calm,  steadfast;  Alpheus 
Hardy,  princely  Boston  merchant  and  influential 
citizen;  Loring  Lothrop  and  Frederick  D.  Allen, 
faithful  and  true;  Samuel  Hurd  Walley,  friend  of 
Daniel  Webster,  clear  in  mind  and  weighty  in  judg- 
ment, later  chairman  of  the  committee  that  super- 
intended the  erection  of  our  present  House  of 
Worship,  whose  personal  and  inherited  love  for  the 
Old  South  made  his  laborious  service  a  work  of 
piety  and  delight;  Deacon  Charles  A.  Stoddard,  the 
Old  South  saint  of  his  time;  and  John  L.  Barry, 
forever  loyal  and  militant.  To  these  names  must 
be  added  that  of  Linus  M.  Child,  stout-hearted 
attorney  for  the  society,  and  Charles  A.  Morss, 
mild  in  manner,  just  and  resolute  in  spirit. 

Later  other  men  appear  in  our  records:  Joseph 
H.  Gray,  keen  financial  servant  of  the  society; 
Richard  Hall  Stearns,  for  many  years  a  deacon  and 
a  prominent  member;  William  B.  Garritt  whose 
conservative  thought  was  accompanied  by  the 
deepest  religious  feeling;  Alphonso  S.  Covel,  one  of 
the  friendliest  and  most  useful  of  men;  Luther  A. 
Wright,  perhaps  the  most  successful  superintendent 


[82] 
the  Bible  School  ever  had;  and  the  learned  historian 
of  the  church,  Hamilton  A,  Hill.     These  men  repre- 
sent a  later  generation  of  members  and  servants  of 
the  Old  South  Church. 

In  the  greatest  crisis  in  its  life  since  it  was 
founded,  Samuel  Johnson  came  forward,  the  indis- 
pensable friend  of  the  society.  He  was  then  in  his 
magnificent  prime.  No  injustice  could  ruffle  his 
temper,  no  opposition  break  or  weaken  his  purpose. 
For  four  long,  troubled  years  he  lived  mainly  to 
serve  this  church,  to  defend  its  rights,  to  secure  for 
it  the  command  of  its  property,  to  establish  it  by 
law  in  freedom  and  security.  He  won  his  cause; 
he  was,  as  the  representative  of  the  society,  trium- 
phant everywhere;  above  all  he  so  fought  as  to 
make  no  enemy;  he  so  contended  as  to  increase  the 
public  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  then  and  till  his 
death  in  1899  among  all  wise  and  good  men.  Since 
the  Founders  of  the  Church  there  has  been,  in  my 
judgment,  no  layman  so  important  at  a  critical 
period  of  our  history,  or  so  nobly  influential  in  suc- 
ceeding years. 

The  Boston  fire,  in  November  1872,  made  wor- 
ship in  the  old  Meetinghouse  practically  impos- 
sible. Then  it  was,  however,  that  the  fight  began 
in  earnest.  At  one  meeting  of  the  Society  a  mem- 
ber rose  and  said  that  since  the  building  was  spared 
from  the  flames  that  had  consumed  the  whole 
region  round  it,  clearly  it  was  the  will  of  God  that 
the  church  should  continue  to  worship  there.    To 


[83] 
this  a  veteran  of  the  Civil  War,  then  a  young  man, 
inquired  with  consuming  logic,  How  about  the 
saloon  at  the  other  end  of  Milk  street?  That,  too, 
was  spared  from  the  flames.  Did  Providence  intend 
that  both  enterprises,  the  liquor  trade  and  religion, 
should  go  on  at  the  old  sites?  That  young  man 
was  Edward  C.  Johnson,  for  the  past  twenty  years 
treasurer  of  the  Old  South  Society. 

The  Old  South  Church  was  granted  the  right  to 
move;  the  Old  South  Meetinghouse  was  preserved. 
The  noble  struggle  had  thus  a  wholly  happy  issue. 
Nothing  remains  today  but  the  friendliest  feeling  in 
the  Old  South  Church  for  the  men  and  women  who 
represent  those  who  saved  a  monumental  building, 
and  in  the  Old  South  Meetinghouse  Association,  in 
which  by  rare  courtesy  the  present  minister  of  the 
church  is  a  member,  for  our  fellowship  and  work. 
In  this  spirit  we  greet  each  other  today. 

The  Old  South  Church,  in  the  noble  words  on  the 
tablet  in  the  front  porch,  was  "preserved  and  blessed 
of  God  for  more  than  two  hundred  years  while  wor- 
shipping on  its  original  site,  corner  of  Washington 
and  Milk  streets,  whence  it  was  removed  to  this 
building  in  1875,  amid  constant  proofs  of  His 
guidance  and  loving  favor."  The  church  has  sur- 
vived because  its  members  in  each  new  generation, 
with  clean  hands,  pure  hearts,  and  wise  heads,  have 
loved  it,  served  it,  and  set  its  good  above  and  be- 
yond all  private  interests.  No  other  force  than 
that  can  save  it  for  the  future.     "The  memory  of 


[84] 
the  just  is  blessed";  the  great  company  of  just 
souls,  men  and  women  who  are  worthy  of  remem- 
brance; and  the  just  memory  of  today  by  which 
they  are  held  in  everlasting  remembrance.  The 
whole  great  story  fills  the  mind  with  the  high  mean- 
ing and  the  solemn  beauty  of  life: 

.  .  .  Life  is  not  as  idle  ore, 
But  iron  dug  from  central  gloom, 
And  heated  hot  in  burning  fears, 
And  dipt  in  baths  of  hissing  tears, 
And  batter'd  with  the  shocks  of  doom 
To  shape  and  use. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  GEORGE  A.  GORDON 


HE  paper  which  follows  deals  with  Dr.  Gordon's 
pastorate  at  the  Old  South  Church  from  his  installa- 
tion to  the  time  of  the  publication  of  this  volume.  It 
was  prepared  by  the  Reverend  Albert  E.  Dunning, 
D.D.  —  a  member  of  the  Church,  at  the  request  of  the 
Church  Committee. 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  GEORGE  A.  GORDON 

INSTALLED   APRIL   2,    1 884 

HISTORIANS  have  remarked  that  the  end  of 
a  century  and  the  beginning  of  the  next  are 
usually  a  period  of  greatest  unrest.  This  is 
notably  true  of  the  last  thirty-five  years.  Every 
realm  of  thought  and  action  has  expanded  through 
storms  —  theology,  education,  politics,  industry, 
arts,  inventions. 

The  local  history  of  the  Old  South  Church  during 
this  time  of  upheaval  has  been  distinguished  by 
two  things;  by  inward  harmony  and  by  manifest 
divine  guidance.  The  faith  of  its  members  is  in- 
scribed on  the  outer  walls  of  the  new  edifice,  "Qui 
transtulit  sustinet."  As  a  prophecy  it  has  been 
wonderfully  fulfilled. 

The  church  is  rarely  fortunate  in  having  one 
leader  during  all  this  period.  Through  him  it  has 
spoken  the  word  of  wisdom  interpreting  the  pur- 
pose of  God  in  each  crisis.  His  confidence  in  the 
ideals  and  integrity  of  its  members  and  their  un- 
swerving confidence  in  him  have  made  secure  its 
assurance  that  through  the  strife  and  struggle  of 
men  and  nations  the  will  of  God  is  being  established. 
The  sane  optimism  of  the  Old  South  Church  is  an 

87 


[88] 
unfailing  source  of  its  spiritual  strength  and  its 
material  progress. 

George  Angier  Gordon  was  born  and  bred  in  a 
typical  Scottish  Christian  home,  a  farmer's  son  and 
himself  a  farmer  in  his  boyhood.  The  life  of  his 
homeland  throbs  in  his  veins  not  less  now  than 
fifty  years  ago.  It  pulses  in  his  sermons,  through 
which  flit  pictures  of  sunsets  on  Scotland's  purple 
mountains,  reflected  in  her  tarns,  of  flocks  quietly 
feeding  in  her  close  cropped  pastures.  The  song  of 
the  skylark  in  the  dawn,  of  the  mavis  at  nightfall, 
the  whistle  of  the  blackbird  in  his  thorny  den  at 
noon,  and  the  reaper's  song  in  the  field  of  ripened 
wheat  are  undertones  in  his  appeals. 

In  a  spirit  of  bold  adventure,  he  found  his  way 
to  this  New  World  when  he  was  eighteen  years 
old,  and  earned  his  living  as  a  working  man  at  an 
iron  moulder's  bench  in  South  Boston.  He  found 
room  in  his  meagre  luggage  for  the  hammer  he  had 
often  thrown  successfully  in  athletic  contests. 

Fired  by  a  passion  to  preach  the  Gospel  he  left 
the  workshop,  made  his  way  through  Bangor  Theo- 
logical Seminary  and  was  ordained  pastor  of  a 
typical  New  England  country  church,  in  Temple, 
Maine.  There  he  labored  for  a  year  with  a  devo- 
tion which  after  half  a  century  is  fragrant  in  the 
memories  of  the  children  of  his  people,  and  in  the 
traditions  of  the  generation  following  them. 

Under  the  pressure  of  an  ever  increasing  thirst 
for  knowledge  he  turned  from  his  ministry  for  a 


[89] 

time  and  came  to  Harvard  University  seeking  in- 
struction in  Greek  Literature  and  in  philosophy.  He 
was  allowed  to  take  these  two  subjects  as  a  special 
student.  Two  years  of  passionate  and  persistent 
pursuit  of  these  studies  so  impressed  his  teachers 
that  the  Faculty  of  the  University  by  unanimous 
vote  took  the  unprecedented  step  of  admitting  him 
to  the  senior  class  without  examination.  Imme- 
diately on  his  graduation  in  1881  he  resumed  the 
work  of  the  ministry,  as  pastor  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Church  in  Greenwich,  Connecticut. 

During  these  years  the  way  was  being  prepared 
for  Mr.  Gordon  to  enter  on  his  life  work.  Dr. 
Manning,  with  the  strong  support  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Old  South  Congregation,  had  guided  them 
through  storm-tossed  waters  in  their  migration  from 
the  old  Meetinghouse  on  Washington  Street  to 
their  new  home  on  Copley  Square.  His  ministry 
of  twenty-five  years  was  virile,  evangelical  and 
scholarly.  He  was  militant  for  the  truth  as  he 
understood  it,  yet  not  of  a  controversial  spirit.  He 
cherished  an  outlook  on  the  future  which  was  not 
merely  optimistic,  but  inspired  and  inspiring.  It 
is  regarded  by  the  church  as  a  favoring  providence 
that  his  spirit  continues  with  it  up  to  this  time 
through  the  presence  of  Mrs.  Manning,  and  that 
his  oldest  daughter  perpetuates  his  ministry  as 
Mistress  of  the  Manse. 

Dr.  Manning's  health  was  permanently  impaired 
by  his  military  service  during  the  Civil  War.     In- 


[go] 

creasing  weakness  compelled  him  to  resign  his 
active  pastorate,  taking  effect  on  the  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  of  his  installation,  in  March  1882.  He 
remained  pastor  emeritus  till  his  death,  Novem- 
ber 29  of  that  year.  Immediately  after,  the  Church 
and  Society,  by  unanimous  votes,  instructed  their 
committees  to  extend  a  call  to  Mr.  Gordon.  They 
had  been  looking  in  this  direction  almost  from  the 
time  when  Dr.  Manning's  active  service  ended. 
However,  they  met  with  an  obstacle  which  probably 
was  unexpected.  They  were  commissioned  to 
invite  a  young  minister  to  become  the  leader  of  the 
oldest  Congregational  Church  in  the  largest  city  of 
New  England.  They  regarded  it  as  the  strongest, 
and  in  its  new  location  the  most  promising  church 
in  Boston,  which  was  the  headquarters  of  the  de- 
nomination. But  the  young  man  was  engaged  in 
a  prosperous  and  important  work.  He  felt  that  it 
demanded  his  continued  service.  He  was  also  re- 
luctant as  yet  to  assume  the  greater  responsibility 
tendered  to  him.  He  promptly  declined  the  call. 
The  Old  South,  however,  knew  the  kind  of  man  it 
wanted  and  had  found  him.  It  placed  his  letter 
of  declination  again  in  the  hands  of  its  Committees, 
with  instructions  to  confer  with  him  further,  "with 
a  view  to  bringing  him  to  us  as  our  pastor  in  the 
earliest  possible  time."  A  year  later  the  call  was 
renewed  and  accepted. 

The  installation  service,  April  2,  1884,  has  be- 
come a  landmark  in  the  history  of  our  denomina- 


[9i] 

4jpn.  A  theological  controversy  was  dividing  it 
into  opposing  parties. 

Committees  in  search  of  pastors  were  being 
warned  by  conservative  leaders  against  selecting 
men  "tainted  with  the  higher  criticism."  The 
denomination  was  looked  on  with  suspicion  by 
strongly  orthodox  bodies  which  possessed  ecclesi- 
astical authority  to  discipline  their  ministers.  The 
Congregational  polity,  because  of  its  greater  freedom, 
was  under  fire.  Harvard  University  was  regarded 
by  many  with  aversion  as  a  formidable  seat  of 
learning  untempered  by  piety.  Andover  Seminary 
was  defending  itself  against  a  determined  effort 
to  oust  its  professors  on  charges  of  heresy.  One  or 
more  of  these  had  been  regularly  preaching  at  the 
Old  South  while  it  was  without  a  pastor.  The 
prosecutors  in  that  case,  in  their  zeal  to  protect 
this  representative  Congregational  church  against 
the  inroads  of  Unitarianism  and  other  heresies, 
were  jealously  inquisitive  concerning  the  attitude 
of  its  new  minister.  None  of  them  probably  had 
the  slightest  ill  feeling  toward  him  personally  or 
any  positive  evidence  that  he  held  theological  be- 
liefs contrary  to  theirs.  But  they  determined  to 
test  him  by  a  thorough  examination  before  con- 
senting to  his  installation. 

The  Committees  of  the  Church  and  Society  knew 
the  history  of  the  Old  South  and  its  traditions. 
They  were  aware  of  the  convictions  of  the  elders 
who  were  pursuing  hotfooted  the  Andover  teachers 


[  pa  ] 
of  doctrinet  then  repudiated  by  the  majority  of 
Congregatiotialist*.  Th<>  didn't  intend  to  risk 
losing  the  minister  of  their  choice  through  the 
advene  action  of  a  council.  Mr.  Gordon  waa 
formally  reoehred  into  the  membership  of  the  church. 
Former  pastors  had  on  their  reception  contented 

to  B  confession  of  faith  adopted  by  a  council  two 
hundred   years  before.     Mr.  Gordon   made  his  nun 

statement  of  belief,  which  waa  accepted  unani- 
mously, and  he  was  welcomed  b\  the  memh< Ifl  .it 
a  public  reception  as  a  brother  belo\ed.  to  be  their 
pastor.     He  was  established  in  the  parsonage. 

In  the  letter  missi\e  calling  the  Council  the 
churches  were  not  in\ited  to  examine  the  candidate 
or  to  advise  concerning  his  installation,  but  "'to 
participate  in  the  proceeding."  The  in\itation 
was  accepted  by  all  the  in\ited  (hurdles.  It  \\;is, 
however,  received  by  the  conservatives  as  a  challenge. 
The  Council  assembled  in  the  afternoon  in  the  midst 
of  a  snow  storm.  Some  of  its  frost  BOOUlfl  to  have 
entered  the  chapel  with  the  pastors  and  delegates. 

The  pastor  elect  offered  credentials  that  could 
not  be  questioned.  He  brought  the  result  of  a  dis- 
missing Council  at  Greenwich  giving  him  unqualified 
commendation.  He  read  a  comprehensive  state- 
ment of  Ins  religious  belief.  It  contained  no  apparent 
note  of  controversy.  It  was  conceived  on  a  high 
spiritual  level.  The  candidate  concluded  by  de- 
claring himself  a  student  of  divine  truth,  and  by 
expressing  the  fervent  hope  that  he  would  find  in 


[93] 
his  new  surroundings  spiritual  companions  in  ex- 
ploring the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ. 

A  stenographic  report  has  been  preserved  of  the 
more  than  one  hundred  questions  answered  by  the 
candidate  in  the  examination  which  followed.  They 
relate  in  the  main  to  the  nature  of  the  Godhead, 
the  meaning  of  the  Atonement,  and  the  effect  of  the 
crucifixion  of  Christ  as  the  Son  upon  God  the  Father 
in  persuading  him  to  be  reconciled  to  sinful  men. 

The  protracted  discussion  of  the  Council  in  private 
session  disarranged  the  plans  which  had  been  made 
to  entertain  at  supper  the  pastors  of  neighboring 
churches.  It  postponed  the  time  announced  for 
the  installation  service.  After  some  hours  of  sus- 
pense for  those  waiting  outside  the  closed  doors, 
the  Council  at  last  voted  by  a  majority  of  about  two 
thirds  to  proceed  with  the  program  for  the  evening. 
Two  members  who  had  accepted  prominent  parts 
withdrew.  Their  places  were  acceptably  filled  by 
others. 

However  disturbing  this  experience  was  at  the 
time,  it  resulted  in  an  important  gain  to  the  de- 
nomination. The  Old  South  Church,  by  its  loyalty 
to  its  minister,  helped  to  convince  the  then  dominant 
party  of  the  unwisdom  of  attempting  to  make  the 
tenets  it  defended  tests  of  fellowship.  It  helped  to 
ameliorate  the  disputes  which  culminated  nearly 
ten  years  later  in  acknowledged  freedom  of  the 
faith,  at  the  meeting  of  the  National  Council  in 
1892  and  the  American  Board  the  following  year. 


[94] 

Of  the  effect  of  this  experience  on  the  minister, 
he  has  spoken  for  himself.  In  a  sermon  celebrating 
the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  his  installation  he 
said,  "I  now  give  thanks  for  the  outspoken  opposi- 
tion to  my  views  and  purposes  on  the  part  of  strong 
and  brave  men.  I  felt  that  I  had  come  to  live  among 
men  who  had  convictions,  who  had  the  courage 
to  express  them  and  to  stand  by  them  when  it  was 
unpopular  to  do  so." 

As  an  indication  of  the  trend  of  theological  think- 
ing in  churches  calling  themselves  orthodox  this 
Council  had  an  exceptional  interest.  The  members 
who  took  prominent  part  in  it  had  been  trained  to 
defend  the  Calvinistic  system.  They  were  fixed 
in  their  belief  that  this  was  the  only  "plan  of  salva- 
tion" for  lost  souls.  The  questioning  of  any  ele- 
ment of  that  logically  constructed  plan  seemed  to 
them  a  covert  attack  on  the  fortress  of  their  faith. 
A  favorite  text  of  the  leaders  of  New  England  Con- 
gregationalism was  Ps.  ii :3,  "If  the  foundations 
be  destroyed  what  can  the  righteous  do?"  A  former 
pastor  of  Shawmut  Church  was  said  to  have  preached 
fourteen  sermons  from  that  text.  Mr.  Gordon 
frankly  declared  himself  an  inquirer  into  the  things 
of  God  and  men,  and  his  purpose  to  press  on  eagerly 
and  reverently  in  pursuit  of  truth.  Already  the 
spirit  of  inquiry  had  actively  appeared.  It  seemed 
ready  to  examine  what  had  been  accepted  as  founda- 
tions of  faith  forever  fixed.  Their  defenders  could 
see  no  prospect,  if  these  should  be  shaken,  of  a  re- 


[95] 
building  on  bases  that  could  not  be  shaken.   And  they 
feared  the  consequences  of  a  re-examination  of  them. 

It  is  a  satisfaction  to  record  that  most  of  these 
opponents  lived  long  enough  to  enjoy  fraternal 
relations  with  the  minister  of  the  Old  South  Church. 
One  of  the  most  active  of  them,  after  becoming  ac- 
quainted with  him,  used  to  speak  in  terms  of  un- 
qualified admiration  of  his  intellectual  ability,  his 
Christian  character  and  his  personal  charm. 

On  some  subjects  then  much  debated  among 
ministers,  Mr.  Gordon  frankly  acknowledged  that 
his  conclusions  were  not  fully  formed.  Concerning 
them  he  said,  "I  believe  that  the  mental  habit  of 
suspense  is  rational,  healthy,  fruitful  of  much  peace, 
and  an  indispensable  safeguard  against  the  waste  of 
intellectual  and  spiritual  power."  However,  a 
comparison  of  his  published  lectures  and  sermons 
with  this  statement  to  the  Council  indicates  that 
the  trend  of  his  thinking  had  been  already  estab- 
lished by  strenuous  study  and  earnestly  sought 
divine  guidance.  He  had  become  convinced  that 
he  had  a  vision  of  a  worthier  interpretation  of  God, 
a  truer  idea  of  man  as  God's  offspring,  and  a  nobler 
conception  of  the  worth  of  religion  than  the  fathers 
of  the  church  had  known.  The  clearer  revelation 
of  what  he  then  saw  is  outlined  in  two  of  his  pro- 
ductions nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  later.  One 
of  them  is  an  article  in  the  Harvard  Theological 
Review  of  1908,  "The  Collapse  of  the  New  England 
Theology."     The  other  is  the  sermon  he  delivered 


[96] 
as  preacher  for  the   International   Congregational 
Council  in  Edinburgh  the  same  year.     He  called  it 
"The  Republic  of  Souls.' '    It  is  a  noble  exposition 
of  the  progressive  revelation  of  truth. 

An  illustration  of  his  habit  of  thorough  indepen- 
dent thinking  through  a  subject  occurred  not  long 
ago.  When  the  controversy  was  at  its  climax  over 
the  question  of  a  probation  after  death,  a  sermon  of 
his  was  published  by  request  entitled  "A  Vision  of 
the  Dead."  In  it  he  gave  reasons  for  the  hope  that 
those  who  die  without  faith  in  Christ  may  not  be 
forever  beyond  the  pale  of  divine  mercy.  It  had  an 
extensive  circulation.  Twenty  years  later  when  it 
had  been  sometime  out  of  print  he  was  asked  to 
revise  it  for  a  new  edition.  After  examination  he 
returned  the  copy  for  the  press  without  alteration. 

Of  the  varied  phases  of  Dr.  Gordon's  ministry 
perhaps  the  most  conspicuous  is  his  service  to 
youth  in  schools  and  colleges.  In  i885,  the  year 
following  his  installation  as  pastor  of  the  Old  South, 
Harvard  inaugurated  a  new  experiment  by  making 
all  religious  exercises  voluntary  on  the  part  of  the 
students.  It  established  a  Board  of  five  preachers 
of  different  denominations.  The  youngest  of  these 
was  Dr.  Gordon.  It  was  only  five  years  after  the 
University  had  conferred  on  him  his  Bachelor's 
degree  that  it  entrusted  to  him  this  large  respon- 
sibility. He  served  on  that  Board  for  four  years 
continuously  and  then  after  a  period  of  release  be- 
cause of  other  urgent  claims  he  returned  for  a  new 


[97] 
term  of  three  years.  Here  began  his  friendship  with 
Phillips  Brooks,  also  a  member  of  the  original  Board. 
This  intimacy  continued  till  suspended  by  death. 
Twenty  years  after  the  Board  was  constituted,  Pro- 
fessor Francis  G.  Peabody,  Chairman  of  the  Board, 
published  a  volume  of  addresses  entitled  "Mornings 
in  the  College  Chapel."  He  dedicated  it  to  Dr.  Gor- 
don, in  a  beautiful  poem  which  includes  these  lines: 

Still  at  your  post  you  stand,  high  up  in  the  lighthouse 

tower, 
Guarding  the  way  of  life,  speaking  the  word  of  power; 
Resolute,  tender,  wise,  free  in  the  love  of  the  truth, 
Tending  the  flame  of  the  Christ,  as  it  marks  the  channel 

of  youth. 

Dr.  Gordon  in  later  years  served  three  full  terms 
on  the  Board  of  Overseers  of  the  University.  As 
president  of  the  Alumni  he  recently  delivered  the 
Commencement  Day  Address. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  many  of  the  students 
found  their  way  across  the  river  from  Cambridge 
to  the  Old  South  in  Copley  Square  and  to  Trinity, 
where  Phillips  Brooks  ministered.  To  their  numbers 
Boston  University,  the  Conservatory  of  Music  and 
other  institutions  of  the  vicinity  have  contributed. 
This  preponderance  of  young  men  and  women  in 
the  congregations  on  Sunday  morning  would  be  an 
inspiration  to  any  preacher.  As  years  went  by,  the 
minister  of  the  Old  South  was  called  on  to  give 
courses  of  lectures  at  Harvard,  Yale,  and  other 


[98] 

universities,  also  baccalaureate  sermons  and  occa- 
sional addresses,  taxing  his  strength  to  the  utmost. 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  when  sought  for  as  lecturer 
and  preacher  to  all  sorts  of  assemblies,  used  to  say 
that  whatever  he  could  do  to  increase  the  streams 
of  spiritual  wealth  flowing  into  the  reservoir  of 
Plymouth  Church  he  gladly  undertook;  whatever 
streams  carried  such  wealth  away  from  it  he  avoided. 
This  has  been  Dr.  Gordon's  policy.  He  has  put 
first  the  welfare  of  his  own  people.  And  they  have 
recognized  it  in  a  spirit  of  mutual  appreciation. 
This  relation  he  has  expressed  in  the  dedication  of 
his  latest  volume  of  midweek  addresses,  to  "the 
people  of  the  Old  South  Church  and  Congregation, 
in  grateful  acknowledgement  of  their  unsurpassable 
loyalty  and  in  deep,  enduring  affection." 

Notwithstanding  the  generous  service  he  has 
rendered  to  the  public,  complaints  used  to  be  heard, 
especially  in  the  earlier  years  of  his  ministry,  that 
he  confined  himself  too  closely  to  his  study  and  to 
his  own  church.  He  was  not  often  seen  in  social 
assemblies  or  miscellaneous  public  meetings.  But 
results  have  justified  his  determination  to  conserve 
his  strength  for  systematic  study.  He  has  kept  in 
touch  with  the  literary  life  of  our  time  by  associa- 
tion with  the  famous  Saturday  Club,  and  a  few 
other  organizations  which  have  afforded  stimulus 
and  recreation.  He  has  not  failed  in  personal 
ministry  to  members  of  his  congregation  in  their 
times  of  need.     And  he  has  identified  himself  so 


[99] 
completely  with  the  Old  South  Church  that  he  is 
one  with  it.  He  knows  not  only  its  history  and  its 
traditions  but  its  historic  spirit.  Through  its 
records  he  is  intimately  acquainted  with  the  minis- 
ters who  have  served  it  for  the  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  of  its  existence.  He  knows  the  leading 
laymen  in  all  its  successive  generations.  He  in- 
terprets its  chief  events  by  the  policy  it  has  con- 
sistently maintained  through  the  entire  period. 

The  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  of  the  church  is 
recorded  in  the  volumes  which  its  minister  has 
issued  at  intervals  of  from  two  to  four  years  dur- 
ing his  pastorate.  Looking  back  over  the  two 
centuries  and  a  half  one  may  see  that  the  church 
has  received  some  distinctive  gift  from  each  of  its 
sixteen  ministers.  It  appears  to  us  in  studying  this 
history  that  in  certain  directions  the  present  ministry 
is  intellectually  and  spiritually  the  most  fruitful 
of  them  all.  Dr.  Gordon's  literary  output,  in  the 
extent  and  variety  of  its  themes,  when  compared 
with  the  Bibliography  in  Mr.  Hill's  history  of  the 
Old  South,  surpasses  that  of  any  of  his  predecessors. 
Each  of  the  principal  ten  volumes  which  bear  his 
name  has  a  definite  purpose,  and  is  the  fruit  of 
widely  extended  but  carefully  chosen  courses  of 
reading.  As  an  example,  the  Lowell  Institute 
Lectures,  "The  New  Epoch  for  Faith,"  aim  to 
appraise,  for  the  religious  view  of  the  world,  the 
value  of  the  nineteenth  century.  For  this  purpose, 
he  says,  he  has  read  "  chiefly  those  great  books  that 


[ioo] 
constitute  the  watershed  of  the  century's  opinion 
and  feeling."  The  lectures  give  evidence  of  thorough 
study  of  such  historians  and  statesmen  as  Carlyle, 
Gladstone,  Disraeli,  Thomas  Jefferson,  Daniel  Web- 
ster, Abraham  Lincoln.  His  week-end  addresses, 
"Aspect  of  the  Infinite  Mystery,"  are  rich  in  re- 
flections on  the  great  philosophers,  such  as  Socrates, 
Plato,  Aristotle,  Paul,  Kant,  Spencer  and  Emerson, 
and  the  poets  such  as  Homer,  the  Hebrew  Psalmists, 
Dante,  Milton,  Goethe,  Wordsworth,  Tennyson, 
Browning,  and  Whittier.  More  than  seventy  authors 
are  mentioned  in  this  volume. 

One  charm  of  Dr.  Gordon's  preaching  is  his  inter- 
preting the  thoughts  of  great  thinkers  of  all  the 
ages  for  the  average  busy  men  and  women,  express- 
ing their  aspirations  and  ideals  more  clearly  than 
they  had  thought  them  out  for  themselves. 

Frequently  the  lecture  room  has  been  crowded 
with  young  men  and  women  students,  business  and 
professional  men,  toilers  by  hand  and  brain,  who 
have  heard  their  varied  experiences  expressed  in 
language  which  dignified  their  daily  lives  and  in- 
terpreted for  them  the  human  and  divine  sym- 
pathy supremely  revealed  in  the  great  strong  Christ, 
Redeemer  of  mankind.  These  courses  of  midweek 
lectures,  represented  by  this  latest  volume,  were 
begun  several  years  ago  when  the  traditional  prayer 
meeting  had  failed  to  bring  together  the  families 
of  the  congregation  scattered  through  suburban 
districts.     They  have  well  rewarded  the  labor  in 


[101] 

preparation  which  the  minister  has  bestowed  on 
them.  This  midwinter  course  has  become  a  recog- 
nized religious  and  literary  institution  of  the  city. 
It  is  there  that  the  pastor  is  at  home  with  his  own 
church  family  and  friends.  There  he  speaks  of  his 
personal  experience,  with  autobiographic  glimpses, 
discourses  of  his  favorite  authors,  and  allows  ex- 
pression to  his  sense  of  humor.  The  lecture  method 
of  the  midweek  service  is  a  return  to  the  established 
custom  of  the  church  in  its  earlier  years. 

During  these  thirty-five  years  our  democratic  sys- 
tem of  government  has  been  severely  tested.  Its  prin- 
ciples have  been  clearly  set  forth  to  the  Old  South 
congregation,  and  they  have  been  loyally  adopted. 
The  issues  of  the  world  war  which  began  five  years 
ago  were  plainly  outlined.  The  imperative  duty  of 
conquering  Prussian  militarism  was  proclaimed  from 
the  beginning.  With  hardly  an  exception  the  mem- 
bers of  the  congregation  were  busily  working  to  fight 
the  enemies  of  liberty,  on  the  field,  in  camps,  hospi- 
tals, centres  of  rest  and  recreation  for  soldiers  and 
sailors,  and  in  their  homes.  The  volume  of  patriotic 
addresses,  "The  Appeal  to  the  Nation,"  published 
last  year  attests  the  strength  and  fervor  of  loyalty 
to  our  American  Union  which  has  continued  un- 
abated in  this  church  from  its  earliest  days. 

The  associate  ministers  of  the  Old  South  have 
contributed  their  full  share  to  its  prosperity,  in 
their  preaching  and  manifold  pastoral  labors.  Rever- 
end Dr.  Allen  E.  Cross  filled  this  office  for  ten  years. 


[102   ] 

Reverend  Willis  H.  Butler  has  just  completed  a 
ministry  of  seven  years.  They  are  now  pastors 
of  important  New  England  churches  which  are 
thus  linked  more  closely  with  their  older  sister,  the 
Old  South.  Without  a  break  in  the  service,  Rev- 
erend Archibald  Black,  during  the  last  five  years 
the  pastor  of  South  Church,  Concord,  N.  H.,  was 
welcomed  as  associate  minister. 

A  long  list  might  be  made  of  men  and  women  who 
have  upheld  the  honorable  position  of  the  church 
in  the  community  during  these  thirty-five  years. 
They  have  been  influential  in  professional  and 
business  life,  public  officials  of  the  city,  state  and 
nation,  administrators  in  educational  and  benevo- 
lent enterprises.  Since  it  is  beyond  the  scope  of 
this  article  to  chronicle  their  varied  services,  a 
mention  of  one  may  stand  as  representative  of 
them  all.  No  name  is  more  tenderly  cherished  when 
the  recent  history  of  our  church  is  being  considered 
than  that  of  Samuel  Johnson.  A  prosperous  mer- 
chant, giving  generously  of  his  time  and  thought, 
as  well  as  his  money,  to  enterprises  for  promoting  the 
public  welfare,  the  Old  South  Church  had  a  place 
in  his  affection  second  to  no  other.  He  identified 
with  it  his  family  and  his  closest  friends.  The  fine 
hospitality  of  his  home  was  consecrated  to  its 
service.  He  devoted  himself  to  making  it  an  influen- 
tial factor  in  the  missionary  work  of  the  denomina- 
tion at  home  and  in  foreign  lands.  He  was  a  lead- 
ing spirit  in  all  its  interests  for  half  a  century,  so 


[io3] 

wise,  so  capable,  so  generous  in  his  sympathies  that 
his  associates  loved  him  as  well  as  trusted  his  leader- 
ship. He  seemed  to  have  the  Church  in  vision 
through  the  seven  generations  of  its  past,  and  he 
looked  to  the  coming  generations  with  faith  as  strong 
as  his  confidence  was  assured  in  those  who  had  gone. 
In  that  spirit  he  regarded  the  members  with  whom 
he  was  associated.  They  represented  to  him  the  hon- 
orable character  they  inherited  from  the  church  of 
earlier  times,  and  the  promise  of  its  usefulness  for 
generations  to  come.  Like  many  other  families 
whose  names  are  revered  among  us,  he  has  left  as 
his  heritage  his  children  and  his  children's  children 
to  perpetuate  his  service  in  the  Old  South  Church. 

This  continuity  of  family  life,  which  has  been 
such  a  source  of  strength  to  it  for  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  must  be  maintained  loyally  as  far  as 
is  possible.  It  is  noteworthy  that  only  one  change, 
and  that  caused  by  removal  from  the  city,  has 
occurred  for  the  last  decade  in  the  Board  of  six 
deacons.  Other  important  trusts  connected  with 
the  various  ministries  of  the  Society,  the  distri- 
bution of  its  funds  and  the  direction  of  its  affairs 
have  been  faithfully  administered  by  those  whose 
many  obligations  were  not  allowed  to  interfere 
with  the  claims  of  their  church. 

Of  the  ministries  of  the  Church  in  its  local  field 
only  barest  mention  can  be  made.  Its  annual  gifts 
to  the  Boston  City  Missionary  Society  have  always 
led  all  the  other  churches,  and  its  successive  presi- 


[io4] 

dents  have  been  members  of  the  Old  South.  Its 
own  local  mission,  Hope  Chapel,  enlisted  many  of 
its  members  as  teachers  in  its  weekday  and  Sunday 
services  till  changes  in  the  neighborhood  made  its 
continuance  no  longer  necessary. 

While  the  Bible  School  of  the  Old  South  has  not 
been  large  since  its  congregation  has  chiefly  re- 
moved from  the  immediate  neighborhood  to  subur- 
ban homes,  it  maintains  a  notably  successful 
children's  school  during  the  morning  hour  of  public 
worship,  and  a  flourishing  Bible  Class  at  noon, 
conducted  on  modern  educational  ideas.  There  are 
also  attractive  classes  for  women,  young  men  and 
young  women,  with  experienced  teachers.  Dr. 
Gordon  has  often  and  earnestly  impressed  on  the 
people  the  importance  of  the  study  of  the  Bible. 
The  Old  South  Men's  Club  and  the  Women's  Sew- 
ing Circle  are  valued  and  prosperous  organizations. 

The  church  has  always  been  an  important  factor 
in  the  religious  and  civic  life  of  the  community  and 
the  Commonwealth,  and  probably  never  more  than 
during  the  present  pastorate.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the 
Y.  W.  C.  A.,  and  other  institutions  for  the  public 
welfare  have  found  in  the  Old  South  not  only  a 
reservoir  of  financial  help  but  a  place  where  the 
ablest  men  and  women  could  be  enlisted  for  service. 
At  the  celebration  last  May  of  its  two  hundred  and 
fiftieth  anniversary,  the  Governor  of  the  State  and 
the  Mayor  of  the  City  testified  to  its  influence  for 
good  in  public  affairs. 


[io5] 

The  members  of  our  church,  individually  and 
collectively,  have  a  precious  heritage,  a  royal 
privilege,  and  a  great  responsibility.  It  has  been 
preserved  in  increasing  strength  through  the  love 
and  labors  of  successive  generations.  It  offers 
rewards  in  Christian  fellowship,  religious  instruc- 
tion and  spiritual  life  as  great  as  its  members  will 
receive.  It  includes  all  ages  and  all  classes.  Many 
are  members  of  families  whose  names  have  been  on 
its  rolls  for  half  a  century,  some  for  a  much  longer 
period.  Some  are  students  whose  association  with 
it  is  necessarily  short.  A  larger  proportion  are 
wage  earners  than  is  supposed  by  outsiders.  The 
inheritance,  the  privilege  and  the  responsibility 
belong  alike  to  all  according  to  the  measure  of  their 
activities.  By  their  presence  at  its  services,  their 
share  in  its  ministries,  their  prayerful  interest  in 
the  welfare  of  its  members  and  their  loyal  guardian- 
ship of  its  honor,  each  adds  to  its  usefulness  and  its 
excellence.  Every  worthy  member  of  the  Old  South 
Church  is  able  to  say,  "Lord,  I  love  the  habitation 
of  thy  house,  and  the  place  where  thine  honor 
dwelleth." 

This  is  in  outline  the  history  of  our  church  during 
the  thirty-five  years  of  Dr.  Gordon's  ministry  to 
the  present  time.  Though  the  excitement  and 
turmoil  throughout  the  world  continues,  the  minister 
and  his  co-workers  look  forward  serenely  to  years  of 
still  greater  opportunities  and  more  fruitful  service. 

Albert  E.  Dunning 


THE  GOVERNOR'S  ADDRESS 


,T  the  evening  meeting,  May  11,  the  services  of  devo- 
tion were  conducted  by  Mr.  Butler.  In  introducing 
Governor  Coolidge,  Dr.  Gordon  said:  "It  is  our 
privilege  to  have  as  our  guest  this  evening  the  Governor 
of  the  Commonwealth.  I  have  the  honor  now  to  present 
to  you  His  Excellency  Calvin  Coolidge,  who  has  kindly 
consented  to  bring  greetings  to  this  ancient  and  honor- 
able servant  of  the  State." 


THE  GOVERNOR'S  ADDRESS 

REMEMBERING  how  from  its  very  founda- 
tion the  history  of  this  religious  Society  has 
been  interwoven  with  the  history  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  it  is  a  most 
grateful  privilege  to  bring  to  it  on  the  observance 
of  its  anniversary  the  greetings  of  the  Common- 
wealth. 

I  suppose  it  would  be  difficult  indeed  for  us  to 
reconstruct  the  state  of  society  that  existed  at  the 
time  of  the  foundation  of  this  association.  Massa- 
chusetts then  was  a  colony  of  Great  Britain,  and 
in  that  great  empire  it  had  not  yet  been  deter- 
mined whether  men  were  to  live  under  the  despotism 
of  the  Stuarts  or  under  a  constitutional  government 
of  parliament.  It  was  twenty  years,  almost,  after 
the  founding  of  this  Society,  that  the  glorious  Revo- 
lution in  England  determined  that  that  Empire 
would  turn  its  feet  forever  toward  liberty.  And 
the  same  spirit  was  stirring  in  this  old  colony,  for 
in  1689  the  people  here,  in  the  exercise  of  their  right 
of  revolution,  overthrew  the  Governor  of  that  day 
and  took  up  the  duty  and  the  right  of  governing 
themselves. 

Since  the  founding  of  this  church  something  like 

109 


[no] 

seventy  different  Governors  have  presided  over  the 
destinies  of  the  Commonwealth;  for  it  runs  back  to 
the  days  of  that  ancient  Governor  whose  name  now 
is  almost  lost  to  us  —  Governor  Bellingham. 

I  have  often  thought  of  the  wonderful  historical 
location  of  the  old  church,  there  on  Washington 
Street.  Across  the  way  was  the  old  Province  House; 
on  one  side,  near  at  hand,  the  birthplace  of  Ben- 
jamin Franklin;  a  little  down  the  street  the  old 
State  House,  where  sat  for  many  years  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts.  What 
historic  scenes  it  has  witnessed,  and  what  men  of  note 
has  it  seen  pass  by  its  portals! 

The  patriots  of  the  Revolution  gathered  there; 
that  great  exponent  and  great  example  of  the  right 
of  the  people  to  rule  —  Samuel  Adams.  There  in 
its  pews  have  probably  sat  George  Washington, 
General  Lafayette,  and  the  great  men  that  have 
visited  Boston  in  days  gone  by.  And  all  of  the 
great  causes  that  it  has  supported  have  been  success- 
ful in  the  end.    It  is  a  great  history! 

Remembering  that  the  constitution  of  our  State 
in  its  preamble  gratefully  acknowledges  the  Su- 
preme Legislator,  and  in  the  body  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Rights  provides  not  only  for  the  privilege, 
but  enjoins  the  duty,  of  worship  at  stated  intervals 
of  the  Supreme  Being,  you  can  see  that  all  of  those 
fundamental  principles  of  our  Commonwealth  and 
her  institutions  have  drawn  their  inspiration  from 
the  societies  on  which  they  are  founded. 


[Ill] 

Sometimes  it  seems  as  though  government  were 
drawing  away  from  the  eternal  verities  that  men 
ought  to  live  by.  I  doubt  if  that  be  really  so.  I 
doubt  if  there  is  even  now  abroad  anything  less  of 
the  spirit  of  reverence  that  ought  to  mark  the 
government  and  the  places  of  worship  than  that 
which  has  characterized  us  in  the  past. 

It  is  a  grateful  task  to  come  here  on  behalf  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  and  to  bring 
its  greetings  to  an  institution  that  has  been  one  of 
the  pillars  of  the  state,  and  from  which  the  govern- 
ment has  drawn  guidance  and  inspiration,  and  by 
whose  teachings  I  trust  the  government  may  abide 
forever. 


THE   MAYOR-   ADD? 


I 


INTRODUCING  Mayor  Peters,  Dr.  Gordon  said: 
"  We  have,  as  another  guest,  the  Mayor  of  the  City  of 
Boston.  His  Honor  Andrew  J.  Peters  has  kindly  con- 
sented to  bring  his  greetings  to  a  very  old  and  very 
honorable  servant  of  the  City  of  Boston,  and  of  the 
town  of  Boston  long  before  it  could  call  itself  a  city  — 
when  it  was  little  more  than  a  village," 


THE  MAYOR'S  ADDRESS 

YOUR  church  is  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
older  than  the  City  of  Boston.  It  is  older 
than  the  State  of  Massachusetts;  it  is  older 
than  our  Nation.  It  existed  and  flourished  under 
the  Stuart  and  Hanoverian  kings,  though  never  in 
very  deep  sympathy  with  either  of  those  reigning 
houses.  In  a  word  you  have  been  a  part,  and  a  very 
conspicuous  part,  in  the  growth  and  development 
of  the  City  of  Boston. 

It  is  very  fitting,  therefore,  that  the  Mayor  of 
this  city  should  be  present  on  this,  the  memorable 
occasion  of  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  the  creation  of  this  congregation.  We  have 
grown  up  together.  To  us,  the  civic  officers,  there 
have  been  entrusted  certain  practical  and  mundane 
interests.  Yours  is  the  higher  ministry  of  the 
Spirit.  Yet  I  am  not  sure  that  we  have  ever  been 
so  very  far  apart  as  such  a  mere  verbal  antithesis 
may  imply.  On  the  contrary,  we  seem  to  have 
labored  in  a  close  and  sometimes  in  quite  a  con- 
scious cooperation.  A  government  like  ours  rests 
ultimately  on  the  will  of  the  people;  their  free  and 
spontaneous  assent  to  the  measures  that  are  taken 

for  the  common  welfare  are  the  only  grounds  on 

n5 


[n6] 

which  our  government  can  ever  permanently  pro- 
gress. And  what  is  this  if  not  an  application  to 
civic  affairs  of  the  very  essence  of  religion,  its  in- 
sistence upon  human  brotherhood? 

So  your  congregation  has  strengthened  the  govern- 
ment at  its  foundation  by  maintaining  the  spirit 
which  lies  at  the  basis  of  democratic  citizenship. 
It  is  no  accident  that  in  all  our  great  historic  crises 
your  members  have  exerted  a  powerful  influence. 
The  Tea  Party,  we  are  told,  was  discussed  under 
the  roof  of  your  second  meetinghouse.  A  few 
years  later  the  British  officers  only  endeared  that 
structure  to  us  the  more  by  their  endeavor  to  pro- 
fane it.  And  today  the  Old  South  Church  survives 
as  a  monument  scarcely  second  to  Faneuil  Hall. 
During  the  Civil  War  the  principles  of  Lincoln  and 
Sumner  were  eloquently  expounded  from  your 
pulpit.  The  European  war  found  you  zealous  and 
united  in  behalf  of  those  ideals  which  all  true  Amer- 
icans hold  in  common. 

But  these  are  only  the  strong  lights  of  your 
history,  the  vivid  moments  of  excitement  and  public 
destiny.  During  the  intervening  period  your  in- 
fluence goes  on  steadily,  quietly,  unobtrusively. 
Your  continued  existence  is  a  guarantee  of  righteous 
citizenship  and  of  integrity  and  ideals  in  public  and 
in  private  affairs. 

So  I  am  happy  to  join  you  in  these  ceremonies, 
which  celebrate  a  continuity,  not  only  of  member- 
ship, but  of  indwelling  spirit  —  the  continuity  of 


C«7] 

a  living  idea.  And  because  this  idea  is  alive  and 
not  merely  formal,  it  has  shown  the  power  of  growth 
and  of  adaptation  to  the  development  of  the  forms 
of  living  things.  The  congregation  which  was  born 
in  vehement  dissent  still  maintains  its  original 
character  of  independence  and  of  simplicity.  The 
Confession  and  Covenant  which  were  recited  by  the 
founders  still  form  a  part  of  your  Service  of  Ad- 
mission. But  your  independence  has  broadened 
into  an  acknowledgment  of  the  universal  sanctity 
of  conscience,  and  your  simplicity  no  longer  rejects 
the  beautiful  as  an  accessory  of  worship. 

It  is  a  happy  coincidence  that  this  impressive 
anniversary  —  for  quarter-millennials  are  not  com- 
mon as  yet  among  American  institutions  —  occurs 
during  a  pastorate  which  is  itself  already  remark- 
able for  its  length  of  years.  For  three  decades  and  a 
half  your  present  minister,  Dr.  Gordon,  has  placed 
at  your  service  his  rare  gifts  as  an  interpreter  of 
spiritual  truth.  We  all  know  how  successfully 
he  has  striven  to  make  religion  a  human  experience, 
a  complete  satisfaction  of  the  craving  of  our  human 
nature. 

In  these  intimate  relations  of  sympathy  and  trust 
between  a  flock  and  its  pastor,  even  more  than  in 
the  eloquence  of  the  spoken  word,  the  charm  of  the 
service,  the  dignity  of  the  house  of  worship,  I  find 
the  true  beauty  of  a  congregation  like  this.  I 
assure  you  it  is  a  deep  satisfaction  to  me  personally 
to  join  with  you  in  these  exercises  tonight,  to  breathe 


C«8] 

this  atmosphere  —  impregnated  with  the  tradition 
and  fragrant  with  the  perfume  of  the  finest  Chris- 
tian spirit  and  highest  civic  ideals.  I  am  glad  to 
trace  as  I  sit  here  with  you,  in  retrospect,  the  long 
line  of  progress  over  which  our  Puritan  spirit  has 
travelled,  developing  and  flowing  in  its  ideals,  adapt- 
ing itself  to  modern  conditions,  and  keeping  alive 
today  that  same  spirit  of  vigor  and  force  which  is 
characteristic  of  the  members  of  that  first  small 
congregation  which  met  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago. 

The  spirit  of  which  your  temple,  your  service, 
you  yourselves,  are  the  outward  manifestations,  is 
one  of  the  enduring  things  that  is  characteristic  of 
the  features  of  our  Boston  community.  It  could 
not  perish  without  leaving  a  void  impossible  to 
fill.  And  therefore,  as  a  Bostonian,  loving  my  city 
and  having  faith  in  its  future,  I  am  sure  it  will 
not  perish.  For  that  reason  I  am  here  to  wish 
abundant  and  long  continued  prosperity  to  the 
congregation  of  the  Third  Church  of  Boston.  I 
trust  that  this  noble  edifice  may  endure  for  cen- 
turies to  come,  a  tower  of  visible  beauty  and,  as 
such,  a  symbol  of  the  strength  and  joy  which  it 
makes  and  the  high  ideals  which  are  carried  on 
through  generation  to  generation  by  the 
members  of  this  congregation. 


DR.  PARK'S  ADDRESS 


D 


R.  GORDON  introduced  Dr.  Park  with  these  words: 
"  Those  of  you  who  were  present  this  morning  and  heard 
what  I  had  to  say  about  the  unpleasantness  in  which 
this  church  was  born  will  bear  witness  that  I  am  not 
saying  anything  before  Dr.  Park  that  I  did  not  say 
when  he  was  absent,  —  that  both  churches  were  right 
and  both  were  wrong;  that  they  had  each  a  half  truth, 
and  the  half  truths  came  together  thirteen  years  after 
the  original  quarrel,  —  it  took  them  thirteen  years  to 
cool  off.  Since  that  time  the  two  churches  have  gone 
in  parallel  lines  of  service  and  of  fellowship.  One  of 
the  first  voices  to  welcome  me  here  when  I  came  was 
Dr.  George  Ellis,  a  brother  of  the  then  minister  of 
the  First  Church  —  and  it  was  a  great  greeting.  We 
have  with  us  the  honored  and  beloved  Minister  of  the 
First  Church  of  Boston  as  our  guest  this  evening.  He 
is  descended  from  a  very  eminent  and  eminently 
orthodox  family, — 7  donH  see  how  he  got  where  he  is,  — 
a  grandnephew  of  Edwards  Amasa  Park,  one  of  the 
mightiest  of  teachers  and  of  men  in  his  generation. 
There  is  no  minister  in  Boston,  or  anywhere  else, 
whom  I  could  introduce  to  you  with  more  affection, 
with  more  respect,  than  I  now  introduce  to  you  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Edwards  Park,  Minister  of  the  First 
Church  of  Boston." 


DR.  PARK'S  ADDRESS 

MY  FRIENDS,  such  an  introduction  almost 
precludes  the  possibility  of  an  adequate 
response.  It  touches  one  very  deeply.  It 
occurs  to  one,  however,  that  when  institutions  cele- 
brate their  centenaries,  individuals  are  bound  to 
feel  very  small. 

I  have  been  invited  to  convey  to  you  the  greetings 
of  the  First  Church  in  Boston  upon  the  occasion  of 
your  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary.  I  am 
painfully  conscious  of  my  own  personal  insignifi- 
cance, as  any  man  would  be  conscious  of  his  own 
personal  insignificance  who  strove  to  stand  as  a 
spokesman  between  two  such  ancient  and  honorable 
institutions;  both  of  whom  came  into  existence 
years  before  he  himself  was  ever  thought  of;  both 
of  whom  will  continue  to  live  and  to  flourish  and  to 
serve  Almighty  God  years  after  he  himself  has  been 
gathered  to  his  fathers. 

One  might  almost  detect  a  little  note  of  presump- 
tion in  him  who  ventured  to  occupy  such  a  position; 
who  ventured  to  frame  in  his  own  feeble  words,  and 
to  utter  with  his  own  stammering  tongue,  the  deep 
and  the  generous  messages  of  greeting,  in  all  their 
volume,    and   moment    and    accumulation,    which 

121 


[122] 

ought  properly  to  pass  from  one  institution  to  the 
other  upon  this  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  birthday. 
It  would  require  an  exceptional  man  to  do  that,  — 
to  make  himself  the  mouthpiece  of  an  integral  part 
of  our  Boston  and  New  England  life  during  these 
past  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  to  address 
another  integral  part  of  our  Boston  and  New  Eng- 
land life,  and  to  say  the  adequate  thing,  to  give 
utterance  to  the  thing  which  the  First  Church  in 
Boston  would  want  to  have  said  to  the  Third  Church 
in  Boston. 

I,  myself,  feel  very  strongly  —  I  am  sure  that 
you  not  only  do  feel,  but  have  felt,  very  strongly  — 
a  great  deal  of  sympathy  with  the  Apostle  Paul 
when  he  wrote  those  words  to  his  friends  the  Chris- 
tian Hebrews:  "Wherefore  seeing  we  are  compassed 
about  with  so  great  a  cloud  of  witnesses."  What  a 
stupendous  picture  that  suggests!  You  in  the  Old 
South  Church  celebrating  your  two  hundred  and 
fiftieth  birthday,  compassed  about  with  so  great  a 
cloud  of  witnesses, — the  hundreds  and  the  thousands 
of  your  predecessors  in  this  honored  communion, 
who  throughout  the  past  generations  have  gradually 
gathered  together  and  built  up  and  constituted  the 
substance,  the  texture,  the  body  of  membership, 
the  aggregate  congregation  and  the  aggregate  con- 
sciousness of  this  ancient  Church.  Think  of  that 
cloud  of  witnesses  present  with  you  in  spirit.  Pictur- 
esque, if  you  please,  in  all  the  parade  of  their  attire; 
the  young  and  the  old,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  —  a 


[123] 

noble  army,  —  girls  and  boys,  the  matron  and  the 
maid,  Jacobite  and  Puritan  and  Georgian  and  Vic- 
torian. Think  of  that  cloud  of  witnesses  whereby 
you  are  compassed  about,  who  have  been  and  who 
still  are  the  aggregate  consciousness  of  the  Old 
South  Church,  in  behalf  of  whom  you  are  acting 
today!  Then  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  that 
when  institutions  celebrate  their  centenaries,  in- 
dividuals feel  pretty  small. 

Now  think  of  another  cloud  of  witnesses  where- 
with another  body  of  worshippers  in  the  city  are 
compassed  about,  —  a  company  very  similar  to 
your  own,  and  only  a  few  years  older,  —  those  who 
have  constituted,  and  who  still  do  constitute,  the 
aggregate  consciousness  of  the  First  Church  in 
Boston.  And  then  for  the  time  being  entirely  dis- 
guise all  present  personalities,  and  let  those  two 
great  mystic,  vague,  stupendous  assemblages  of 
human  souls  speak  directly  to  each  other;  let  the 
genius  of  the  one  utter  its  greetings  directly  to  the 
genius  of  the  other.  There  I  think  we  would  have 
some  suggestion  of  the  real  messages  of  greetings 
which  would  pass  between  the  two  Churches  at  this 
time;  the  voice  of  the  one  speaking  to  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  other;  the  spirit  of  the  one  com- 
paring notes,  reviewing  the  past,  uttering  its  con- 
gratulations to  the  spirit  of  the  other. 

It  must  needs  take  a  daring  man  to  say  just  what 
that  message  would  be;  it  might  perhaps  be  better 
to  leave  the  imagination  to  face  that  task  unaided. 


[124] 

And  yet  for  my  part  I  cannot  resist  the  confidence 
that  the  words  which  that  voice,  that  vast  composite 
voice,  would  speak,  are  words  of  love  and  fellow- 
ship. Perhaps  they  would  be  words  somewhat  as 
follows: 

"My  friend  and  my  fellow  worker:  According  to 
the  measurement  of  man  the  years  of  our  life  are 
many  and  long;  for  two  centuries  and  a  half  we 
have  lived  and  labored  side  by  side;  we  have  had 
our  ups  and  downs;  we  have  drifted  apart,  and  have 
been  drawn  together;  we  have  known  our  moments 
of  estrangement  and  jealousy,  and  our  long  bright 
periods  of  close  and  brotherly  cooperation;  and 
looking  back  over  the  past  by  and  large  we  see  from 
the  vantage  point  of  this  occasion  that  after  all  is 
said  and  done  our  paths  have  been  parallel,  that 
our  love  for  each  other  has  been  very  real,  that  the 
ties  which  have  bound  us  together  have  been  and 
are  infinitely  stronger  and  more  numerous  than  the 
little  forces  which  would  have  thrust  us  asunder, 
and  that  we  hold  for  each  other  even  a  deeper  affec- 
tion, that  we  are  prouder  of  each  other,  more  de- 
pendent upon  each  other  than  we  had  realized. 
The  dear  Lord  knows  that  we  are  both  old  enough, 
and  we  are  both  magnanimous  enough,  to  rise  above 
the  level  of  little,  paltry  policies  and  reverences, 
and  to  take  delight,  not  in  each  other's  discomfiture, 
but  in  each  other's  success;  and  that  is  because  we 
are  so  sincerely  agreed  in  our  aim  and  in  our  pur- 
pose.   We  are  striving,  each  in  his  own  way,  to  do 


[125] 

the  same  thing.  We  are  partners  in  a  common  enter- 
prise, which  is  to  engender  and  to  implant  the  spirit 
of  Christ  in  this  community;  to  establish  a  little 
slice  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  here  in  Boston.  And 
it  makes  no  difference  as  between  us  whether  the 
chief  portion  of  that  work  is  done  by  the  one  or  the 
other.  What  we  each  want  is  to  have  the  work 
done,  and  that  which  we  most  delight  in  is  to  see 
that  the  work  is  done,  whether  by  one  or  by  the 
other,  —  whether  by  the  Old  South  Church  or  the 
First  Church,  whether  by  Paul  or  by  Apollos. 
What  we  want  is  to  see  the  thing  done,  and  we 
delight  to  see  that  it  is  done,  —  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
preached,  that  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord  is 
proclaimed. 

"  Therefore,  I  who  am  your  fellow  worker,  I  who 
am  the  genius  and  the  spirit  of  one  of  your  com- 
panion churches  in  this  great  partnership  of  God's 
service,   bring  you  here  heartfelt   greetings  upon 
your  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  birthday;    heartfelt 
greetings  of  love,  of  gratitude,  of  pride  in  all  your 
great  and  honorable  past;    and  bright  hopes  and 
confident  expectations  for  the  still  greater 
and  the  still  more  honorable  future 
that  lies  before  you." 


PRESIDENT  MACLAURIN'S  ADDRESS 


I 


NTRODUCING  President  Richard  C.  Maclaurin, 
Dr.  Gordon  said:  "The  next  speaker  is  the  President 
of  one  of  the  proudest  possessions  not  only  of  the 
Commonwealth,  out  of  the  country  —  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology.  But  I  introduce  him  this 
evening  as  an  honored  and  beloved  member  of  the  Old 
South  Church,  and  he  is  to  speak  to  us  in  the  house  of 
friends  and  to  his  friends." 


PRESIDENT  MACLAURIN'S  ADDRESS 

THIS  is  an  historic  occasion  and  at  such  a  time 
our  thoughts  naturally  and  properly  revert 
to  the  past.  Tonight  I  have  more  thought 
for  the  future  than  for  the  past,  but  it  is  for  the 
future  as  it  will  be  affected  by  the  past,  seeing  that 
the  roots  of  the  future  go  deep  into  the  past.  This 
morning  the  curtain  of  the  past  was  skilfully  drawn 
aside  at  great  moments  in  the  life  of  the  Church 
and  of  the  community.  Action,  great  action,  was 
the  centre  of  interest  and  we  were  fascinated  not 
only  by  the  action  itself,  but  by  the  revelation  of 
the  human  qualities  of  the  actors  —  strength  and 
frailty  intermingled  in  bygone  days  as  now.  To- 
night as  a  complement  and  contrast  to  this  I  shall 
deal  not  with  action,  but  with  thought.  This  I 
cannot  present  in  the  dramatic  form  that  so  en- 
tranced us  this  morning.  What  I  ask  you  to  con- 
sider is  this  —  during  the  turbulent  and  eventful 
years  of  action  that  Dr.  Gordon's  sermon  recalled 
so  vividly  to  our  minds,  the  great  current  of  human 
thought  has  flowed  on  quietly  —  how  has  this 
current  tended  in  the  world  at  large  and  how  has 
this  tendency  affected  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
life  which,  to  this  historic  church,  has  always  been 

the  theme  of  paramount  interest  and  importance? 

129 


[i3o] 

Just  twenty-seven  years  before  this  church  was 
founded,  there  was  born  in  England  of  obscure 
parents  an  infant  that  at  first  appeared  so  frail 
that  he  seemed  destined  to  an  early  death.  Hap- 
pily, he  outlived  this  early  frailty  and  in  the  vigor 
of  his  manhood  did.  perhaps,  more  than  any  other 
single  man  to  speed  the  current  of  the  world's 
thought  in  the  realm  of  science.  This  was  Isaac 
Newton.  His  science  was?  of  course,  related  to 
the  science  of  an  earlier  day.  but  his  was  one  of  the 
great  master  minds  of  the  world  and  his  contri- 
butions to  scientific  development  gave  such  an 
impetus  to  science  as  to  make  the  progress  since  his 
day  incomparably  more  rapid  and  significant  than 
at  any  other  period  of  human  history.  The  dis- 
coveries of  science  since  this  church  was  founded  and 
the  applications  of  science  to  practical  affairs  have 
so  radically  changed  the  conditions  of  men's  daily 
lives  that  we  face  now  a  new  earth  and  a  new  heaven. 

The  growth  of  the  scientific  spirit  has  been  the 
most  notable  human  achievement  since  the  days  of 
Newton.  As  Science  has  waxed  the  Church  in 
general  has  seemed  to  many  to  wane,  and  it  has  been 
too  often  assumed  that  this  waving  of  Science  and 
waning  of  the  Church  are  related  as  cause  and  effect. 
in  other  words  that  science  and  religion  are  by 
nature  antagonistic.  This  is  a  view  due  primarily 
to  the  fact  that  the  church  has  often  stereotyped  its 
creeds  or  based  them  on  the  authority  of  a  book  or 
a  person  or  a  group  of  persons,  or  uncritically  ac- 


[i3i] 

cepted  a  tradition  of  miraculous  interferences  with 
the  order  of  nature.  The  man  of  science  is  used  to 
wonders,  but  they  are  wonders  that  are  subject  to 
law.  He  is  suspicious  of  authority  of  any  kind  and 
his  study  of  nature  makes  him  extremely  critical  of 
any  reported  breach  in  the  continuity  of  natural 
law.  He  is  keenly  alive  to  the  fact  that  much  of 
the  history  on  which  some  of  the  dogmas  of  the 
Church  were  founded  was  written  under  circum- 
stances that  did  not  make  for  scientific  accuracy  in 
the  record.  He  knows,  too,  that  even  the  unques- 
tioned facts  of  bygone  days  often  demand  a  new 
interpretation  in  later  ages.  So  it  has  come  about 
that  the  growth  of  science  has  made  impossible  for 
thoughtful  minds  the  retention  of  many  historic 
creeds  in  the  form  in  which  they  have  been  handed 
down.  Science  tries  to  build  its  creeds  on  experience 
and  it  realizes  from  experience  that  everything  is 
changing.  Science  itself  is  changing  and  changing 
so  rapidly  that  what  is  scientific  orthodoxy  today 
may  be  heterodoxy  tomorrow.  Similarly,  people 
bursting  with  modernity  today  will  be  looked  upon 
as  old  fogies  tomorrow.  Is  there  anything  permanent 
behind  these  shifting  forms?  That  is  a  great  ques- 
tion for  science  and  religion  alike.  If  you  arrive  at 
the  idea  of  some  fundamental  permanence  it  is 
easy  to  recognize  that  the  form  in  which  it  is  pre- 
sented not  only  changes,  but  must  change  from 
generation  to  generation  and  from  age  to  age.  We 
were  reminded  this  morning  of  the  circumstances 


[i3a] 
of  the  baptism  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  one  of  the 
great  names  on  the  roll  of  the  Old  South  Church. 
He  is  often  regarded  as  a  pioneer  of  electrical 
science,  but  it  is  impossible  to  speak  of  electrical 
phenomena  today  in  the  language  of  Franklin  and 
will  doubtless  be  equally  impossible  a  hundred  years 
hence  to  speak  of  them  in  the  language  of  today.  So 
with  religion — the  fundamental  phenomena  are  un- 
changed, but  the  language  you  must  use  to  describe 
them  changes  inevitably  from  age  to  age,  and  even 
if  the  words  are  the  same  their  meaning  is  different. 
What,  then,  you  may  ask,  is  the  form  of  Christian 
doctrine  that  today  is  acceptable  to  the  "modern 
man"?  If  by  "modern  man"  you  mean  the  man 
that  writes  and  talks  a  good  deal  nowadays,  the 
man  with  a  smattering  of  science  and  other  modern 
knowledge,  who  thinks  that  the  intellectual  life 
of  the  world  began  with  the  twentieth  century, 
but  may  be  willing  to  stretch  a  point  to  include  a 
part  of  the  nineteenth,  the  man  that  does  not  appre- 
ciate how  profound  has  been  the  insight  of  pioneers 
of  thought  in  ages  long  since  past,  the  man  that 
does  not  know  the  simple  fact  that  if  you  estimate 
the  achievements  of  the  race  by  the  intellectual 
powers  of  the  few  very  great  ones  that  have  ap- 
peared (let  me  say)  since  Greek  thought  was  at  its 
height,  there  is  no  convincing  evidence  of  any  ad- 
vance at  all,  and  little  to  be  said  for  the  very  modern, 
if  this  be  the  modern  man  that  you  have  in  mind, 
when  you  ask  what  form  of  Christian  doctrine  is 


[i33] 

acceptable,  then  I  say  that  it  is  a  matter  of  trifling 
importance  what  is  acceptable  to  him.  He  is  a 
mere  sophomore  strayed  from  the  ranks  of  the 
colleges,  and  no  sensible  man  sits  up  nights  ponder- 
ing what  is  acceptable  to  such  a  person.  If,  how- 
ever, by  "modern  man"  you  mean  the  man  who 
realizes  that  he  is  the  heir  of  all  the  ages  and  must 
formulate  a  creed  that  is  consistent  with  all  that 
he  has  learned  from  others  and  all  that  he  has 
acquired  through  his  own  experience,  then  your 
question  is  indeed  a  momentous  one  and  demands  a 
most  serious  answer.  I  should  not,  of  course,  pre- 
sume to  answer  it  now,  even  had  I  any  fitness  for 
the  task.  It  presents  far  too  complex  a  problem  to 
be  summarized  adequately  in  a  formula  or  disposed 
of  in  a  fraction  of  an  hour  or  in  several  hours.  It 
needs  to  be  presented  from  many  points  of  view  and 
applied  to  the  innumerable  problems  of  real  life. 
It  demands,  indeed,  just  such  an  exposition  cover- 
ing months  and  years  as  we  of  the  Old  South  Church 
are  privileged  in  obtaining  from  the  great  preacher 
and  teacher  who  has  filled  this  pulpit  so  worthily 
for  a  generation. 

Although  an  adequate  exposition  of  the  creed  of 
the  modern  man  is  a  lengthy  matter,  although  much 
that  seems  important  to  one  generation  loses  al- 
most all  significance  for  another,  and  although  the 
phases  in  which  the  doctrine  must  be  presented  to 
be  acceptable  to  the  "modern  man"  of  any  epoch 
are  necessarily  changing,  it  is  still  true  that  under- 


[i34] 

lying  these  changing  forms  are  a  few  broad  views 
that  are  essentially  permanent  and  that  constitute 
the  essence  of  the  Christian  doctrine  of  life.  These 
views  will  remain  of  vital  interest  and  import  as 
long  as  they  satisfy  the  deepest  needs  of  man.  They 
are  two  in  number.  First  a  view  of  the  possibili- 
ties and  the  worth  of  the  individual  man,  a  view 
that  gives  dignity  to  the  human  struggle,  however 
sordid  its  conditions;  and  the  second  a  view  of 
the  right  relations  of  man  to  his  neighbor,  a  view 
that  supplies  an  impulse  and  a  guide  to  social  action. 

Surely  there  never  was  a  time  when  this  tragic 
world  needed  the  Christian  doctrine  of  life  more 
urgently  than  now.  Look  at  the  individual.  Petti- 
ness and  sordidness,  muddle  and  failure,  surround 
him  on  every  hand.  Grossness  and  wickedness  are 
rampant,  the  war  having  revealed  their  unfathom- 
able depths  in  new  and  dramatic  forms.  These  are 
facts  that  the  modern  man  must  face,  and  if  he 
cannot  accept  a  Christian  view  of  them  he  is 
often  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  man  lives  like 
an  animal,  loves  like  an  animal,  and  dies  like  an 
animal.  This  doctrine  that  man  is  a  mere  gain- 
seeking  animal  preying  upon  his  kind  may  be  held 
by  a  few  individuals  without  much  apparent  result, 
but  what  happens  when  it  becomes  the  real  creed 
of  a  people,  or  of  the  dominant  section  of  a  people, 
we  see  before  our  eyes  today  in  the  tragic  spectacle 
of  despairing  Russia. 

And  if  you  look  away  from  the  individual  to 


[i35] 

communities  and  nations  the  urgent  need  of  a 
Christian  doctrine  of  life  is  equally  apparent.  In 
many  countries  the  most  significant  social  movement 
today  is  based,  at  least  in  part,  on  a  doctrine  of 
hatred,  and  we  see  at  our  own  doors  men  and  women 
striving,  almost  with  religious  fervor,  to  set  class 
against  class  and  group  against  group.  Nor  is  the 
present  generation  likely  to  forget  the  awful  spec- 
tacle of  a  mighty  nation  encouraging  itself  by  hymns 
of  hate  to  war  pitilessly  on  the  innocent  and  the 
defenceless,  and  in  the  name  of  humanity  giving 
itself  up  to  a  veritable  orgy  of  hatred  of  other 
peoples. 

I  have  spoken  of  changing  forms  and  of  the  fact 
that  much  that  appeals  to  one  generation  is  re- 
pellent to  another.  This  historic  church  took  its 
rise  in  Puritan  days  and  we  have  since  travelled  far 
from  Puritan  ways  of  thought  and  action.  Modern 
science,  however,  although  it  could  hardly  use  the 
language  of  Puritanism,  finds  itself  in  some  funda- 
mental matters  much  more  in  accord  with  Puritan 
ways  of  thinking  than  with  those  that  have  since 
supplanted  them  in  popular  esteem.  Puritan  doc- 
trine was  abandoned  largely  because  of  its  gravity 
and  its  sternness,  but  that  is  just  the  aspect  of  it 
that  appeals  to  the  man  of  science.  He  can  have 
no  sympathy  with  the  easy-going  optimism  that 
has  long  been  popular  in  our  midst,  due  perhaps  in 
part  to  a  reaction  from  the  excesses  of  the  Puritan 
regime.      The  popular   view  is  not  definitely  for- 


[i36] 

mulated,  but  if  it  were  it  might  take  some  such 
form  as  this:  "Do  not  trouble  much  about  good  or 
evil,  about  falsehood  or  truth.  In  almost  every- 
thing human  these  things  are  intermingled,  good 
being  not  very  far  from  evil,  nor  wisdom  from  folly, 
so  that  one  man's  opinion  is  almost  as  good  as 
another's.  Things  will  somehow  all  come  out 
right  in  the  end,  and  in  the  meanwhile  we  cannot 
do  better  than  encourage  all  to  shout  forth  their 
views  and  settle  the  issue  by  counting  heads."  To 
such  a  creed  the  modern  man,  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  science,  is  unalterably  opposed.  To  him 
truth  and  falsehood,  good  and  evil,  are  as  distinct 
as  were  God  and  the  Devil  in  the  mind  of  the  Puri- 
tan. The  root  principle  of  his  scientific  creed  is  to 
base  everything  on  the  solid  ground  of  fact.  He 
cannot,  as  so  many  do,  overlook  facts  simply  be- 
cause they  are  unpleasant  or  discordant  with  his 
theories  or  his  preconceived  ideas.  Amongst  the 
facts  that  cannot  escape  him  except  by  a  deliberate 
closing  of  the  eyes,  is  the  fact  of  the  awful  conse- 
quences not  only  of  wickedness  but  of  mere  error. 
More  and  more,  as  he  investigates  nature,  he  finds 
all  things  ruled  by  laws  that  are  never  relaxed, 
and  the  punishment  for  ignorance  of  these  laws 
seems  to  him  to  be  as  certain  as  the  punishment  for 
their  deliberate  breach.  He  cannot,  therefore,  be 
an  easygoing  optimist,  and  whatever  be  his  hopes 
or  fears  as  to  human  destiny,  he  cannot  but  bestir 
himself  to  know  the  truth  and  live  in  its  light.    Nor 


[I37] 

can  he  view  with  equanimity  the  spread  of  perni- 
cious doctrines  of  any  kind  whether  these  doctrines 
be  economic,  political,  social,  or  religious.  He  must 
do  more  than  deplore  them;  he  must  do  his  best  to 
combat  them.  Nonresistance  to  evil  is  unthink- 
able to  him,  and  amiable  tolerance  of  human  frailty 
and  folly  is  almost  the  unpardonable  sin. 

Let  me  touch  in  closing  on  the  revival  by  the 
modern  man  of  interest  in  the  ancient  doctrine  that 
man  is  saved,  if  at  all,  by  devotion  to  the  church. 
It  is  a  doctrine  easily  distorted  to  base  uses.  In 
the  crude  forms  in  which  it  has  often  been  pre- 
sented it  has  been  the  source  of  some  of  the  gravest 
evils  that  history  records.  Needless  to  say  that 
in  such  forms  it  is  abhorrent  to  the  modern  man, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  it  will  ever 
again  become  acceptable.  Devotion  to  the  church  in 
the  sense  in  which  it  interests  and  attracts  thought- 
ful men  today  means  primarily  devotion  to  the  spir- 
itual community  of  the  Church  Invisible.  This  is 
the  community  of  all  those  who  are  loyal  to  the 
great  ideals  of  Christianity,  whatever  be  the  form 
in  which  they  choose  to  present  those  ideals,  whether 
Catholic  or  Protestant,  Orthodox  or  Heterodox, 
"old  fashioned*'  or  "modern."  There  may  be  no 
relation  at  all  between  this  spiritual  community 
and  the  visible  church  of  our  daily  experience,  but 
if  there  be  no  such  relation,  then,  of  course,  the 
visible  church  is  a  sham.  Easy  and  cheap  it  is  to 
point  out  how  far  this  visible  church  falls  below 


[i38] 
its  ideal;  easy  and  cheap  to  belittle  its  achievements 
and  enlarge  upon  its  failures.  The  only  thing  worth 
doing  is  to  bring  it  nearer  the  ideal,  and  the  modern 
doctrine  to  which  I  have  referred  suggests  that  man 
is  saved,  if  at  all,  by  his  effort  to  do  this.  So 
this  doctrine  runs  —  devote  yourself  to  your  church 
with  unwavering  loyalty,  strengthen  it  by  all  the 
means  in  your  power,  keep  it  from  a  mere  conven- 
tional faith,  and  strive  without  ceasing  to  bring 
it  closer  into  accord  with  the  Invisible  Church  of 
which  it  should  be  the  counterpart.  There  lies 
the  great  task  and  the  great  hope.  The  end  for  the 
individual  is  salvation  and  for  society  the  main- 
tenance of  civilization  itself.  These  are  dark  days 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  when  men's  hearts  are 
failing  them  for  fear.  And  they  may  well  fear,  for 
civilizations  —  highly  prized  civilizations  —  have 
disappeared  before  now  and  ours  may  disappear  as 
others  have  done.  Let  us  have  no  illusions.  One 
thing  is  certain.  Civilization  will  not  be  saved  by 
flabby  optimism  nor  by  irresolute  goodwill.  It 
needs  the  virtues  of  the  warrior  and  the  call  to  its 
service  is  even  more  pressing  now  than  ever  was 
the  call  to  arms.  It  is  the  call  for  alert  and 
strenuous  loyalty  to  the  great  ideals 
of  the  Master. 


DATE  DUE 

AUG  21 

•  m? 

NCM  -7 

\m 

DEC     5 

IQQJ 

AUG   ' 

VJ       |s7\JH 

DEC  i 

]    I994 

II II       10     10 

no 

JUL    '  A   V 

u^ 

MAR    o 

i  ^-mi 

'    cUUI 

GAYLORO 

PRINTEDINU.S   A. 

BOSTON  COLLEGE 


3  9031   01565746  3 


73.62 
.(% 

363 


BOSTON 


Bapst  Library 

Boston  College 
Chestnut  Hill,  Mass.  02167 


